


Seasons of Stars

by DetectiveKnight



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Mild Language, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, edgelord meet walking mess, her dog's name is Adonis and I adore him, honestly this is so self indulgent but I DON'T CARE I LIVE FOR FOLLOWING GAME PLOTS IN FICS, it's likely that everyone will at least be mentioned, okay Seb's not that much of an edgelord in this fic but Saf is DEFINITELY a walking mess, petty Seb is petty but only for Saf's sake, so instead of tagging everyone who talks I'm just gonna tag the whole crew as everyone, still mostly fluff though, walking mess - edgelord, yes the dog is an important character so that's why he's tagged
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-01-01 04:08:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 67,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12148305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DetectiveKnight/pseuds/DetectiveKnight
Summary: Pelican Town gets shaken up by the arrival of a new farmer, a girl named Safiya. Most seem to think it’s a good thing, but Sebastian isn’t quite sure it is. But maybe it won’t be bad. Maybe it’ll end up becoming a rare good thing for him.





	1. Sebastian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian meets the new farmer Safiya, and whether he likes it or not she’s determined to be his friend.

Sebastian’s eyes snapped open at the sound of something falling to the floor above him. He groaned and rolled over to check his clock, noticing it was 5 AM. Even for his early bird mother, this was early. He faintly remembered her chattering on within the past few weeks about a new something or other coming or appearing on the first day of the year, but was it the first? He didn’t know, he didn’t care, he was tired and going back to bed. Whatever it was could wait until later. He was sure his mother would talk endlessly about it later.

* * *

 

Sebastian rolled his neck on his shoulders, cracking it, and stretched out. He had been working for a while; he guessed it was time for some lunch. He padded up his stairs and began making his way toward the kitchen when he noticed an unfamiliar voice in his mother’s shop. Pausing, he strained to hear more.

It was a girl’s voice. She was laughing at something Mom had said, transitioning from soft giggles to full blown laughter. Something about saving up for farm buildings? That was all he was able to catch from where he was. Just as Sebastian was going to continue on, his mom came around her counter to shake hands with whoever the new girl was and made eye contact with him. He begged her with his eyes to not make him do anything, but of course she ignored that.

“Oh, Safiya, have you met my son Sebastian yet?” Mom asked, waving him over. Sebastian bit back a long groan. As much of a recluse he wanted to be, he couldn’t ignore his mom, especially not after already making it known he was right there. Moving deliberately slowly, he shuffled over just as the new girl moved into view.

She had brown hair tied into a bun, her bangs swept out of her face, and her eyes were bright, bright green. She wasn’t tan, but she definitely wasn’t his level of pale. She wore a purple shirt with a pale blue stone pendant, and she was giving him a small, shy smile. What did his mom say her name was – Safiya?

“Hey.”

“Hi. Nice to meet you, Sebastian,” the girl replied softly.

“Yeah, nice to meet you too.”

Thankfully, Mom stepped in and saved him from an awkward silence. She began chattering about the two of them hopefully becoming friends, and then went back to talking about building things. Sebastian took that moment to escape, giving the new girl – Safiya, he had to remember that or he wouldn’t hear the end of it from his mother – a tiny smile as he left. At least in front of Mom, he didn’t want to seem rude. He could do without the lecture on first impressions she would be giving him if she thought he wasn’t being polite enough.

Sebastian dug through the fridge, looking for a snack and purposely taking as long as he could. Thankfully, he heard the front door open and shut, signaling the coast was clear. Of the new girl, at least. He didn’t know if he would get cornered by his mother on his way back to his basement.

Luck was apparently on his side, however. Even his mother didn’t stop him on his way back. That meant she was either out too or approved of his manners for once. Well, either way it didn’t matter to him. Sebastian assumed that he would rarely see the farmer, and so it wouldn’t really matter what he did or didn’t say when he met her.

* * *

 

Sebastian’s assumption was very, very wrong. Every day, the girl came by on her way either to or from the mines once those idiots from Joja cleared the path. He wasn’t sure if she was there to buy from his mom’s shop or chat with her, exactly, but she always made sure to say hello to him, even if he was prickly to her. Once, she even showed him her meager finds for the day, excited because it was apparently her best trip yet. She apparently has a sharp eye, because she caught him eyeing her quartz chips and gave him one. Since then, she had occasionally shared some quartz and other gems with him from time to time for the past two weeks she had been there. Thanks to her, he was building up quite the crystal collection.

Finally, realizing she was just determined to make friends with him – whether it was her own decision or his mother’s influence, he couldn’t tell, but she was definitely determined – Sebastian decided he might as well invite her to the saloon that coming Friday. It would be easier if he had people he knew there, to balance out the anxiety that would inevitably be coming from barely knowing her. All Sebastian had to do was wait for her to show up.

And speak of the devil, there she was, appearing in the doorway from his mom’s shop to the rest of the house just as he emerged from his stairwell. She smiled at him and moved closer, being careful to stay a few steps away. He appreciated that she had picked up on his personal bubble and respected it.

“Hey, Sebastian. How’s it going today?” she asked.

Sebastian shrugged. “Today was an easy workload. I’m almost done already.”

“That’s good! Well, if you’re almost done I won’t keep you, I don’t want to be why you don’t get time to yourself today,” Safiya replied.

She started to turn away to leave. Sebastian had to act fast; he was sure his mother knew by now that Safiya wanted to be friends, and if she found out he hadn’t invited her to the saloon to hang out with everyone by now, there was a possibility she would (metaphorically, at least) slaughter him.

“Wait, uh, do you play pool?”

She turned around, eyebrows raised in surprise. “I’m not great at it, but I know how to play,” she replied. “Why, what’s up?”

“Uh, every Friday I meet Sam and Abigail at the saloon to play pool. Would you be interested in coming along?”

Safiya smiled. “Sure, I would love to. What time should I meet you guys?”

“We’re usually all there by 5:30.”

“Great, then I’ll be there. Thanks for inviting me. See you later!”

With that, Safiya turned and left, not even giving Sebastian time to say the word “bye.” He watched her go for a moment, then shrugged and continued on his way to the kitchen. That was easy enough. Sebastian supposed he would have to prepare himself for there being an unfamiliar person at their saloon night, but for some reason Safiya’s presence didn’t really bother him as much as some others did. He wasn’t sure if it was because she was one of the rare few who respected his boundaries or if it was something else, but it was a refreshing change for once.

Still, that didn’t mean he really wanted to be friends. He had enough friends, thank you very much, and he didn’t really like change much, either. He would be perfectly content with staying acquaintances with her, being friendly and all that when he saw her, but outside from this one single time, he didn’t really need or want to hunt her out to hang out. Just that Friday, and that would be it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So lately I've been super obsessed with Stardew Valley, especially edgelord Sebastian. You can thank my roommate/best friend for that ahaha! While this is the first thing I've posted in a while (and this is my first thing for Stardew Valley), I haven't stopped writing so hopefully I'm not super rusty! Anyway I already have several chapters of this finished and another in the works, so I'm planning on releasing a new chapter every Wednesday until I catch up to what I'm currently working on. Oh and I'm also working on a drawing of my Safiya! It'll be super slow coming because I'm not particularly good at anatomy and I haven't done digital art in years, but once it's posted I'll post a link for you guys!
> 
> As for this chapter itself, only this one and the second chapter have been beta'd (thanks aforementioned friend who doesn't have an AO3 as far as I know!). This one is super short compared to my usual length, but the next chapters I have finished are all way longer than my usual so hopefully that balances it out enough. And I have a separate chapter summary, but I still can't figure out how to post a chapter summary for just the first chapter of a multi-chapter fic... Oh well. Anyway! Thanks for reading, and if you guys have any thoughts I'd love to hear them!
> 
> Update: Now that this is officially multichaptered, I have all the layouts for this first chapter finally set up the right way! Yay, chapter summary!


	2. Safiya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Safiya’s more of a mess than she lets on. After horribly embarrassing herself, she doesn’t want to go to the saloon, but she’s still determined to make some friends…

When Safiya woke up on Wednesday, it was raining. Rain meant no watering her crops, so she took her time getting ready for the day and checking the TV broadcasts for the day. On her way out, she pat her dog Adonis on the head and left, deciding to check the ocean beach for forage after she checked to make sure her farm was doing okay.

Safiya checked her vegetables, ensuring her scarecrow was still doing a good job. She looked out over her fields and sighed. She hated how messy her farm was, but even with what work she had put into it, it still mostly looked abandoned. She almost had enough gold for a silo from Robin’s shop so she could start cutting back all the hay growing wild, but even her efforts in cutting back wild trees and getting rid of rocks and fallen branches didn’t make much a difference with all that wild hay spreading more and more every day.

She turned her back on the messy part of her field and began making her way into town, ready to head to the beach for some forage before making her way to the mines for the day. Lost in her thoughts, Safiya let her feet carry her on their own, not paying attention to her route. She had finally been in town long enough that she didn’t have to pay close attention to where she was going for fear of getting herself lost. How she managed to get lost in such a small town, she didn’t know. It was just so different from the city she was used to and its grid of streets.

Safiya kept her eyes to the ground when she arrived at the beach, hoping she would find a few things instead of just one like she had the past few times she had come by. Arms full of shells, she glanced up and saw a lone, dark figure on the pier. She shoved her finds into her bag and moved closer to see who it was. It didn’t look like Willy or Elliot, but she didn’t really know many others who liked to look over the Gem Sea, especially not while it was raining. She moved closer, trying to figure out who would be standing in the rain like this. When she noticed it was Sebastian, she smiled to herself and moved closer.

“Hey, Sebastian.”

Sebastian jumped, dropping what he was holding into the water. Safiya froze, immediately feeling awful that she startled him into losing something. She moved slightly closer, hoping it wasn’t irreplaceable. He was glaring down at a pack of cigarettes as they slowly sank out of view.

“I- I’m so sorry. I’ll buy you some more. Wait, here, how much is it? I can just give you the gold. I’m so sorry I startled you, I didn’t mean to. I didn’t think I was being that quiet.”

The words tumbled out of Safiya’s mouth as she dug for her coin purse. She flushed, looking away, thankful that at the very least he hadn’t turned the glare on her. Say what you will about Sebastian (and she had heard a lot of things from various villagers), she liked him well enough and didn’t want to do anything to make him mad at her.

Sebastian sighed, watching the bubbles from the pack rise. “It’s fine. Bit of a waste of gold, but I’m trying to quit so I guess that helps.”

Disappointment. She could deal with disappointment. As long as he wasn’t mad at her, she could deal with that.

“Still, I’m sorry I startled you. Are you sure you don’t want me to pay you back?”

“No, it’s fine, but thank you. I know you’ve been saving for something from my mom’s shop, and whenever she gets a big purchase she ‘surprises us’ with one of my favorite dinners. I’ll consider that your due,” he responded. He wasn’t smiling, but Safiya could pick up on the slightly teasing tone. She let out a sigh of relief.

“Alright, well, I guess if you insist. Anyway, what are you doing out here in the rain?”

Sebastian shrugged. “I like it better when it’s raining.”

Safiya waited a half a second for further explanation, but upon realizing that was all he was going to give her at that time, she looked out over the sea in front of them.

“There’s definitely something special about the way it looks out here when it’s raining. More peaceful, but also a bit more sad.”

Sebastian hummed his agreement, shoving his hands into his hoodie pocket. Safiya stood beside him for a minute or two longer, watching the rain, before deciding it was about time to head for the mines today. She turned and bade him goodbye before promptly catching her foot in a gap in the planks and faceplanting onto the pier.

Safiya felt her face growing hotter and hotter as she collected herself. She glanced over at Sebastian, and he was staring down at her with an unreadable face. He started to move toward her, but she stumbled to her feet and took off before he could get any closer. She didn’t stop running until she made it back to her house and slammed the door behind her. She slid down the door, and Adonis moved so he could rest his chin in her lap.

“Why am I so clumsy around Sebastian today? Normally I have no problems like this, so why suddenly now?” she asked him, sadly scratching his ears. He looked at her, his eyes surprisingly knowledgeable as she spoke to him.

_Maybe your interest in him is more than just friends?_

Safiya flushed bright red. She knew it was her own thoughts that supplied that notion, but the intelligence in Adonis’ eyes made it seem like that’s what he would be saying to her if she could speak. “But he seems barely interested in knowing me at all. Yoba, now I don’t want to go to that saloon night. I’m afraid I’ll embarrass myself even more than I already have, and with an even bigger audience.”

_Or maybe things will go smoothly and he’ll be more willing to be friends with you at the very least._

“I guess that’s true… Adonis, you’re surprisingly helpful, you know?”

Adonis boofed at her in response, his wagging tail thumping loudly against the wooden floor. Safiya chuckled and praised her dog, gathering herself to finally head for the mine like she had planned.

The trip to the mines was rather uneventful, at least in the case of monsters. She didn’t see many monsters at all, so she just kept going and going. Safiya made it down to the tenth level, finding a chest with some loot there, and continued on her hunt for gemstones and geodes. She also was in need of a lot of copper ore so she could start upgrading all of her tools.

On the thirteenth floor, Safiya found a particularly large amethyst node. It took a few more strikes from her pickaxe than a normal sized one would to break it open, but the payout was worth it. The amethyst crystal that appeared in the rubble was easily larger than her fist. The bigger a crystal, the more expensive it was, too, so she was absolutely ecstatic at her luck. The psychic on TV had promised luck would be on her side that day, and that it was!

She turned the crystal over in her hands, thinking about what had happened earlier that day. She still felt bad she was the reason Sebastian was out some money, but she didn’t know what she could do otherwise since he wouldn’t take any from her. An idea dawned on her. Safiya would use this crystal – more than enough to pay for that pack of cigarettes, no matter how much she despised them – as an apology, and give it to him along with an apology letter in the morning. It was about time for her to head home for the day anyway, according to her watch. She would just finish this floor and go back up.

The next morning, Safiya had earned enough money to buy her silo from Robin thanks to her finds in the mines yesterday. She dug out her stationery and penned a letter to Sebastian. In it, she apologized once again and said she would still like to come to the saloon if she was okay with it, and to have his mother pass on word if he was. She wrapped the letter around the crystal and began making her way through town, stopping along the way to donate some new stones she had found to the library and crack open some geodes at the blacksmith’s.

By the time she reached the carpenter’s, Safiya was starting to feel nervous. She wasn’t nervous about her silo, she was very excited for that. No, what she was nervous about was apologizing to Sebastian again. He hadn’t seemed too upset, but she was just so bad at reading people, especially new people. She didn’t want to seem weird for being so worked up over it still, but she still felt bad. And that just made her feel a need to apologize again.

Finding Robin at her shop, Safiya purchased her new silo, excited both for herself and thanks to Robin’s own excitement at having a large project again. Using a map of Safiya’s farm, they decided to build it beside the ruined greenhouse – someday she was going to get that rebuilt – and Robin left to begin setting up the foundation and workspace. Checking her watch, she noticed it was about the time Sebastian would emerge from his room to have lunch. Her nerves set in once again as she pulled out the neatly wrapped parcel for him.

A door shut somewhere below her. Sebastian was coming out. Safiya moved to the hall near his door and watched him come up the stairs staring at his feet. He lifted his head and saw her once he reached the top step.

“Oh, hey, Safiya. Need something?” he asked. Immediately, she flushed bright red.

Safiya opened and shut her mouth once. Twice. “Uh- um… Here!”

Safiya shoved the parcel into Sebastian’s hands before she could turn too red and bolted. The whole way back home, she kicked herself for not even waiting for him to start to open it. He definitely thought she was weird by now. She would just have to accept that and hope he would still be okay with becoming friends.

By that point, she was halfway through town and decided to go to the pier and try to fish. No matter how much she loved the mines, Safiya was determined to not let herself become one track minded and wanted to get better at everything she could do to earn some money, especially now that she only had a little bit to her name again. She didn’t go to the pier as much as she should; Safiya loved water and everything about it, and she liked the company of Willy and Elliot. She was just so bad at fishing that attempting it for too long would frustrate her to no end, and she didn’t want that to be the impression they got of her. So, she practiced at isolated points on the river and in ponds and lakes she found throughout the valley, hoping to get better for the stronger ocean fish.

After struggling for an hour or two and mumbling to herself about the Sebastian situation, Safiya finally managed to catch a sardine. It was her first time catching one, and she could use it to help the Junimos restore town. Just as she stored her catch, she heard a light applause behind her. She whirled around to see none other than Willy there. He looked immensely proud in her.

Willy reminded Safiya of her grandfather. Not the one who left her the farm, but her other grandfather. He loved to fish too, but he was never able to make a good enough profit off it to do it as a job like Willy did. Still, he went most days he had off, determined to keep his hobby alive. It was similar to Willy trying to keep fishing going in Pelican Town.

“I see you’ve been practicing, lass. That’s good. Only a few people in town still fish anymore, so I’m glad you haven’t given up.”

“Oh, thanks, Willy. It’s definitely not easy, but I think I might be getting the hang of it.”

“Just keep practicing and you’ll get better.”

“Thanks. Uh, how long were you standing there exactly?”

“Long enough to hear you mumblin’ about some boy problems.” Safiya flushed bright red, and Willy let out a loud bark of laughter. “Don’t worry, lass, I won’t tell anyone. Though, to me, it sounds like you just need to let things flow naturally, see how they go. You’re a sweet lass, so I doubt anyone would hate you for floundering here and there. Everyone can tell you’re trying.”

“Thanks, Willy. I appreciate it.”

“Aye, not a problem. I didn’t hear any specifics, but I did hear something about meeting him in a group at the saloon? I think you should go still. Even if it’s not specifically to hang out with that group, at least half the town ends up in the saloon on Friday evenings. Myself included. You would be able to make friends with someone else somewhere in there, and you always could come talk with me too if you really need it.”

“Okay, I guess I will. Thanks again, Willy. I’ll see you later.”

“Not a problem, lass. And keep up with the fishing!”

Safiya laughed and waved at him as she left, heading toward her farm. She hoped Robin would still be there and have a message for her from Sebastian. Luckily, there she was, still working away at the silo despite the fact that it was coming upon 10 PM, long after the time Robin usually went to bed.

“Oh, hello, Safiya! How was your day?” Robin asked when she noticed her approaching.

“It was alright. How are things going here? Do you want any water or a snack?”

“No, I’m fine. I’m just about finished here, actually. You’ll have your silo in the morning!”

“That’s awesome! Thanks, Robin!”

“Of course! Oh, before I forget, Sebastian asked me to make sure you knew what time it was that you guys were going to the saloon tomorrow. He said 5:30, and that he’d be in the arcade with Sam and Abbie.”

Relief flooded Safiya’s mind, but she tried to prevent letting it show. “Okay, thank you. I’ll be there! Have a good night, Robin.”

Safiya waited until she was in the safety of her own home to celebrate her success, and even then she kept it quiet in case Robin might hear. Sebastian definitely wasn’t mad at her if he still was interested in her being there, and that could only mean good things. She noticed Adonis staring at her with what almost looked like a smug look on his face. Scowling at him and ignoring the look, Safiya went to bed, excited for what the next day held for her.

* * *

 

Safiya had spent most of the day trying to do jobs that wouldn’t tire her out too much, like finally cutting back all the wild hay that was running rampant on her farm. She didn’t want to have to leave long before everyone else. She kept glancing at her watch, often enough that it seemed to her that time was standing still.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Safiya decided it was close enough to time for her to head over to the saloon. It took all she had to keep from running there. Obviously, her excitement hadn’t dwindled at all, and it hadn’t allowed her to get as nervous as she had been the previous day. She made her way to the saloon, noticing both the number of people also heading to the saloon and the volume of the music inside whenever someone opened the door. Lewis hadn’t been lying when he said that the saloon was a popular destination in the town on Friday nights.

Greeting a few of the people she passed on her way through, Safiya slowly made her way to the arcade off to the side of the saloon. Hovering in the doorway, she surveyed the room. There were two arcade consoles, one for Journey of the Prairie King and one for Junimo Kart, along the wall to her left. Beside the consoles was a Joja Cola vending machine. In the back corner were two couches, with Abigail draped across one and playing a handheld game. Along the wall to her right were more chairs, a table, and a TV on a stand. The TV was on, but Safiya couldn’t hear anything coming from it over the sound of the jukebox and all of the people inside.

In the very center of the room was a pool table. It was currently in use by Sam and Sebastian. Sam was pacing around half of the pool table, his back to her and trying to find an angle that would be to his advantage. Sebastian stood off to the side, leaning on his cue and smirking at Sam. His air of confidence rippled off him in waves. Safiya had to tear her eyes away from him.

Safiya shook herself mentally and forced herself to step forward. Abigail was the first to notice her. She sat up, smiling, and snapped her handheld game shut to pause it. “Safiya, hi! It’s good to see you! I didn’t think you knew about saloon night!” she said.

Sam and Sebastian looked up, trading their expressions so they had their usual ones once again. Still, Sebastian didn’t seem to be upset or anything, he just seemed to have that kind of face that seemed upset as its neutral setting.

“Safiya! Glad you could finally join us!” Sam said excitedly. He began to walk toward her as she made her way to Abigail, but Sebastian cleared his throat and stopped him.

“If you walk away, that means you forfeit the game and I win again,” Sebastian teased.

Sam froze in his spot and seemed to rewind, his face even returning to his rare concentrated and somber state. Sebastian and Abigail laughed. “Sam’s been determined to beat Sebastian at pool basically our whole lives, but he always loses,” Abigail whispered to Safiya as she settled beside her.

“Hey! I’ve come close!”

“Well, coming close still isn’t winning, Sam!” she teased, laughing. Sam pouted, but he turned back to the pool table instead of responding. He was once again focused on trying to find the right angle for the way the balls had landed at the last shot.

Safiya watched Sam pace for another minute or two before deciding to move to a better place to watch. She stepped beside one of the side pockets and observed the layout of the balls. “So, who’s who this time?” she asked.

“I’m solids, Sam’s stripes,” Sebastian replied. She glanced up at him, still leaning on his cue, before taking in the layout in front of her. Sam still had five of his balls to go, but Sebastian only had two.

“Are you playing basic eight ball?”

Sebastian nodded. Sam had next to no chance since that was the case. With how he was struggling for as long as he had been to decide how he wanted to go at his turn, Safiya just couldn’t see any way he’d be able to make the comeback necessary to win at this point. She shook her head.

“I’m sorry, Sam, but I just don’t see any way you’ll be able to win any more. It’s gonna take one hell of a comeback for you to be able to win.”

Sam groaned. “Not you too! I thought for sure I had someone on my side now for saloon night pool!”

Safiya laughed and shrugged. “Maybe on another game, but not this one.”

“You sure seem to know a lot about pool, Safiya. Do you want to play after this match ends?” Sebastian asked.

“Well, uh, I learned the rules but I’m pretty bad at the actual gameplay. I’m willing to give it a shot, but you’ll probably slaughter me even going easy on me,” she replied, sheepishly laughing.

“Well hopefully you’re better than Sam, because I could use a bit of a challenge compared to him,” Sebastian replied, a smirk sneaking its way onto his face.

“Hey!”

Sebastian, Safiya, and Abigail laughed. “We’re only teasing you, Sam. You’re still our best friend,” Abigail said.

“Sure doesn’t feel like it right now,” Sam pouted.

“Aw, how about some pizza to cheer you up?” Abigail asked.

Instantly, Sam perked right back up again. “That sounds awesome! I’m done with this game, anyway.” With that, he tossed his cue onto the table and walked toward the counter with Abigail to order some pizza for the group, leaving Safiya alone with Sebastian.

Safiya reached down and grabbed the rack to begin racking up for another game. “So, uh, I’m glad you decided to come. I didn’t mean to come off as if you wouldn’t be welcome any more after what happened at the pier,” Sebastian said, moving a little closer to where she was standing.

“Oh, it’s okay. I’m just kind of a worrier, and combine that with being no good at reading new people, I just wasn’t sure…”

“Are you at least okay after that fall? I know the pier’s full of splinters.”

“No splinters to the face. I’m fine.”

“That’s good.”

An awkward silence fell over them. Safiya continued to rack up before picking up Sam’s cue. “So, uh, would you mind if I tried a game against you? It’s been a while since I’ve played, but it should still be fun.”

Sebastian leaned on his cue again. “Sure. You can go first.”

Safiya lined up her shot and made the break. Thanks to her shot, she would be solids. “Well, your turn. Are you ready to see how bad I am?” Sebastian merely laughed and moved to line up his shot.

A few minutes later, Sam and Abigail returned with two large pizzas for the group. They were surprised to see Safiya and Sebastian evenly matched in a game, tossing teasing banter back and forth over the table. Sebastian never warmed up to someone that quickly, and Safiya had seemed to be a little like him in that sense. That could have been why they got along so well, but of course, that wasn’t the more interesting thing to think about what was going on.

“Aw, Sebastian and Safiya! You guys are so cute! But why are you leaving us out on the fun?” Sam cried, setting his platter of food on the table. Safiya began to flush, clutching her cue close to her chest and wringing it in her hands.

Sebastian merely shrugged. “You guys were taking a while, so we decided to play a game.”

Abigail, having put her platter of food down, went over to examine how the game was going. “Wow, Safiya, I thought you said you were bad at pool. You’re holding your own against Sebastian here.”

“Oh, I’m sure he’s just going easy on me,” Safiya replied, willing her face to calm down.

“Sebastian? Going easy? That’s hilarious. He never goes easy on anybody,” Sam stated.

Safiya turned to Sebastian for verification. He shrugged. “Sam’s right. I don’t go easy on people. You’re doing really well.”

Safiya felt her flush spread to her ears, not hidden at all with her hair pulled up into a bun. She shrugged, loosening her grip on her cue. “Thanks. I honestly don’t know how I’m doing it, I was always so bad at pool when I lived in the city…”

“Well, I guess that means you either were always going against experts, or Sebastian’s just mediocre and Sam’s even worse than we thought. But I think it’s more the first one,” Abigail replied, adding the second sentence over Sam’s protests.

Once again, Safiya shrugged. “I guess either is fair. I don’t plan on ever going back, especially not just to find out what my pool skills really are.”

“You really like it here that much?” Sam asked.

Safiya nodded. “There’s a lot more to do in the city, but that’s about the only perk I can think of. Everyone’s super rude to everyone else and is only concerned with their own selfish needs. It’s always loud at all hours of the day, the number of people is overwhelming, and the streets are so crowded it’s almost more worth walking anywhere you need to go even if you have a car. That’s if you’re willing to risk walking through crowds that could be hiding pickpockets, perverts, and wannabe gang members.”

The other three grimaced. “You make it sound like a paradise here compared to the city,” Abigail stated.

“Well, it kind of is, to me at least. For some people life in the city is great, but for someone like me, it’s just stressful. When I would visit Grandpa while he was still alive, I always loved it so much here. Coming here was an amazing de-stressor. So I’m super thankful he left the farm to me so I could move out here and enjoy it, and so I could make some awesome new friends,” Safiya explained, nudging Abigail as she said the last part.

Sam and Abigail smiled. “Well, we’re glad you moved here too!” Sam replied.

“Yeah, we may have different views of this place, but you’re pretty cool,” Abigail added.

Safiya smiled and turned back to Sebastian. “Well, are you ready to keep going with the game? I want to see if I can keep this luck going.”

* * *

 

Several hours later, Safiya was fighting the urge to yawn every few moments. It was getting pretty late, but she was having a ton of fun and didn’t want to leave. Sebastian had narrowly beaten her in their game, but she easily beat Sam when he insisted on playing against her. In a long, two versus two game of guys against girls, they ended up tying. Sam insisted it was because he was actually pretty good, but everyone else knew that Sebastian and Safiya were the ones carrying their teams. Either way, it was a ton of fun, and she didn’t want the night to end.

Sam and Abigail – Abbie, she had asked Safiya to call her – were the first to leave. Sam was going to be helping watch his little brother Vincent the next day, and Abbie’s dad Pierre had asked her to help him reorganize the shop’s shelves. That left Safiya alone with Sebastian again.

She felt nerves setting in once again – what if she embarrassed herself in front of him again? – but she was determined to keep them from showing. Safiya helped Sebastian put away the pool supplies and bring their dirty dishes to the bar. He explained he liked doing that for Gus since he tended to give them discounts on their food due to how much they usually ended up ordering every Friday. They left the saloon, both standing somewhat awkwardly beside each other on the porch.

“I can walk you back to the farm if you want,” Sebastian offered, sounding just as awkward as Safiya felt.

“Oh, it’s okay. You live so much further than I do, and my place would be so out of the way for you.”

“Actually, there’s a shortcut through the back of your farm that I can take. It’ll shave like three minutes off my walk, I think.”

“Oh. Well then, sure. Thank you.”

They turned and walked toward Skyhold Farm together, making small talk to fill the otherwise awkward silence. By the time Safiya reached her door and Sebastian was rounding the corner of her house to walk up the back way, she realized it hadn’t been anywhere near as awkward as she had thought it might be, and that the walk back was kinda nice even if they were just talking about stupid stuff like the weather the whole way back.

Safiya hoped Sebastian would be willing to talk with her more. Now that she was getting to know him better, she wanted to become actual friends. She ignored the twinge in her heart when she thought the word “friends” and settled herself down for the night, absently stroking Adonis’ head as he curled up beside her for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So normally I write only about 4000-ish words a chapter, but this one is nearly 5000;;; And it only gets longer in later chapters! Oh well, it'll make up for the first chapter being ridiculously short for me.
> 
> Also, chapters won't exactly alternate between Sebastian and Safiya. Most of them are from Sebastian's POV, with an occasional one from Safiya's. Oh, and I only know this much about pool because there's pool tables near the desks I work at on campus and I'm always getting to listen to people teach each other (and then scream about it :))))) I love the screaming so much).
> 
> It was so tempting to post this early because I felt bad about the first chapter being so short but also... I finally have stuff ready for a posting schedule for the first time in my time producing fan works. I've been doing it since middle school, and I'm in my junior year of my undergrad career. So I'm super proud of myself for this! Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy, and as always, if you have any feedback I'd love to hear it! :D


	3. Sebastian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian is surprised to discover that he’s actually willing to make friends with Safiya. That is, if she continues to respect his needs for space. But, surprisingly, he finds himself growing more comfortable with her than with other people.

The next few months go by relatively uneventfully for Sebastian, all things considered. He had already always been excited for saloon nights (or, at least as excited as he could get), but now that Safiya had been joining them, he found himself looking forward to them even more so than before. Sebastian chalked it up to finding someone who completely understood his needs as someone with some form of social anxiety. Safiya didn’t know outright, he hadn’t told her, but she picked up on his nonverbal cues pretty well, considering what she had said about not being good at reading people. She seemed to understand from experience, from what he noticed. Maybe she was like him?

Either way, Sebastian was glad she recognized what he struggled with. And maybe that was why he found himself excited to hang out with her or chat with her when she showed up at his mom’s shop.

Speaking of Mom, she seemed immensely proud of him when she noticed that he occasionally had started leaving his room earlier than usual if he happened to overhear Safiya upstairs. He didn’t want to think about what she thought about that development. All they were was friends.

At first, Sebastian had thought that he might have to push Safiya away and hide out in his room more when she showed up. Thankfully, she continued to respect his space unless absolutely necessary, and she still hadn’t barged into his room without permission like so many other people did. And on top of that, she was good at understanding his way of trying to tell people he was too mentally exhausted to deal with people in general. He didn’t know who told her she was bad at reading people, but whoever it was was probably far away by now, maybe way back in the city she lived in.

Sebastian still didn’t know much about her past. No one did, really. She hadn’t shared much with anyone about that, aside from talking about how much she loved visiting her grandpa’s farm before it became her farm.

He had managed to get out of her that she used to dye her hair a lot of crazy colors. She had listed several colors, actually: black, blue, silver, pink, green… She had told him that the last time she visited Pelican Town before her grandpa’s death, her hair had been lavender, and she showed him a picture from back then that had been on her phone still. As it turned out, they had met way back then. This had been when they were both in high school, Safiya a sophomore and Sebastian a junior.

It was just in passing, but he remembered seeing her leaving Pierre’s right before it closed. He remembered her lavender hair glowing in the pale moonlight, in such a way that he couldn’t help staring, and he remembered her catching him. She had just given him the tiniest of smiles and the slightest of waves before running off toward the farm. Sebastian discovered that she had been sent on a last minute run to the store for her grandpa, as this was around the time he had started to get sick and lose his energy. Her hair had recovered well from all that dye; Sebastian knew what dye-damaged hair looked like, and hers was the complete opposite.

That was the most she had shared about her past, with anyone. But Safiya didn’t seem to like what her life had been like while she was living in the city, and for all he knew, she had only ever lived in the city. Her words hadn’t exactly discouraged him of his dream of going to the city someday, but they definitely made him think harder about his planning. In fact, he had actually gone to his favorite place to watch the city lights more often since her arrival.

Sebastian wasn’t even sure why he felt the need to go so much more than before. It wasn’t as if he had the ability to leave for the city yet. He still didn’t have enough money. Programming only did so much for him, and the townspeople didn’t really need him much for any other sort of computer services. In fact, he was actually enjoying himself in Pelican Town more often lately and was having fewer fights with Demetrius. Maybe he felt the need to go to remind himself of why he was still dealing with it. Whatever the reason, Sebastian didn’t know why he kept feeling like he had to go look at the city lights as if it would be his last time seeing them.

* * *

 

The Egg Festival was one of those festivals that Sebastian really only attended because he didn’t want to hear any sort of lecture about not participating in town events and blah, blah, blah. Sure, Gus’ cooking was fantastic, but he didn’t particularly like eggs, and that was about the only thing served at the Egg Festival feast. He had no other reason to attend, really. Sebastian spent a majority of the day alone, since Sam and Abbie insisted upon participating in the egg hunt still. And Abbie always won, too, so it wasn’t as if it was particularly thrilling watching the contest every year.

This year, though, was going to be Safiya’s first Pelican Town Egg Festival. He was sure that any celebrations in the city would top the one here by a long shot, but she showed up absolutely beaming.

Sebastian had been standing off to the side with Sam and Abbie when he noticed her walk into the town square from the path to her farm. She had traded her usual shirt, pants, and boots for a pair of overall shorts, a floral patterned crop top, and some simple black flats. Safiya’s grin didn’t fall as she scanned the crowd, and when she noticed the trio, she made her way over to them.

“Hey, guys. This is pretty cool, isn’t it?” she asked.

Sebastian shrugged. “Same as every year.”

“Oh, is it? The only celebrations for the Egg Festival in the city are for little kids, so I haven’t really taken part in any since I was maybe nine or ten. But I always loved searching for eggs.”

“Me, too!” Abbie cried.

“Yeah, only because you win every year. What about Vincent? Or Jas?” Sam retorted, grunting when she elbowed him in the ribs.

“Oh, they don’t mind as long as they get to keep their eggs. Are you going to participate in the hunt, Safiya?” Abbie asked.

“I can?”

“Yeah, of course! But it’s starting before too long, so you should get ready.”

“Oh, okay, well I guess I’ll be going and saying hello to everyone really quick before the hunt starts. You know, you’d be surprised how hard it is to find some people around here sometimes. I want to get to know everyone, but it’s hard when I don’t know where everyone is by the time I finish my chores on the farm,” Safiya said. Sebastian chuckled, and she smiled at him. “I’ll see you guys later on!”

Sebastian watched Safiya walk around the town square and greet everyone, still surprised by how excited she was. But maybe her participation would make the egg hunt more interesting to watch this year.

At Lewis’ announcement, all the participants took off to search around the town for eggs. Safiya was certainly determined, literally running around the town to find eggs to add to her basket. Sebastian thought it was actually kinda cute – only for lack of a better word – that she was so into the festival. It was just a stupid festival, but she was really enjoying herself, and you couldn’t just take that away from someone. When the timer went off, she reluctantly turned away from the last egg she was about to grab and walked back to the square. Sebastian was interested to see who would win this year. Secretly, he hoped Safiya would win. Abbie would be upset if she knew he wasn’t rooting for her, but she won every year and Safiya had said she hadn’t been able to celebrate the Egg Festival in years. And she seemed to really like this festival, too.

Sadly, Abbie won once again. Safiya didn’t seem too torn up about it, though, as she came back to where he was standing giggling to herself and saying how she hadn’t had that much fun at an Egg Festival since she was a kid. Sebastian was happy for her, though he would never say that and break the façade he put forward for the rest of the town now that Sam and Abbie were joining them too. No, he’d just have to make do with smiling at her.

* * *

 

About a week after the Egg Festival, Sebastian was hard at work on a programming gig when he heard a soft knock at his door. It wasn’t anyone in his family; Maru tended to call down from halfway down the stairs, and Mom and Demetrius tended to just barge in. He would have been able to tell from stomping upstairs if it was Sam visiting, and Abbie tended to pound on the door and then go right in without waiting for a response.

Too busy to get up and open the door himself, Sebastian instead called for whoever it was to come in. When the door opened, he was surprised to see none other than Safiya standing there. She hadn’t come to his room yet, so he wondered what brought her there now. He looked back at the line of code he was working on and typed in a few more commands. Safiya stopped at the far corner of his desk, waiting for him to acknowledge her.

“Hey. Gimme one sec,” he said, glancing up to see her nod. Sebastian finished the line and saved his work, pushing back from the desk a bit. “Okay, sorry about that. I just needed to finish what I was working on.”

"Oh, it's fine." Safiya rounded the corner of his desk to stand beside him and look at the screen. She looked at it for a moment before turning to him. “What kind of work do you do?”

“I do freelance work as a programmer.” He was about to explain a bit more when his computer pinged. Sebastian fought back a sigh. “That was an IM from Sam. I guess he wants to hang out… Ugh, I don’t really feel like going out today.”

The sound of feet on the stairs drew both of their attention to the doorway. A second later, Robin entered the room, smiling when she noticed Safiya standing there.

“Oh, hi Safiya!” She turned to Sebastian. “Sebby, I know you don’t like it when I come in here… but I ran into Abigail at the store and she said she was looking for you.”

Sebastian fought back another sigh. “Did you tell her I’m working?” he asked.

“I did, but she said she’d probably stop by anyway.”

This time, Sebastian did sigh. “No one takes my job seriously. No one ever bothers Maru when she’s working at the clinic. Does everyone think I’m just surfing the web all day?”

Robin merely shrugged, giving Sebastian a sad look before turning and leaving. Safiya turned to Sebastian, looking upset for him. He could see her chewing her cheek out of the corner of his eye as he dismissed Sam’s IM.

“So, what do you want to do with programming?”

Sebastian perked up at that. She was actually interested in his job? No one was interested in his job before her.

“Well, I’m trying to save up so I can move out of here. Probably to the city or something.” In his pause, he noticed the corner of Safiya’s mouth twitch, but she didn’t say anything, instead waiting for him to continue. “You know, if I’d gone to college, I’d probably be making six figures right now. But I just don’t want to be part of that corporate rat race, you know?”

“I know exactly what you mean,” Safiya sighed. He glanced up at her, noticing how down she looked. She had been stuck in some dead end corporate job? That explained part of why she’d come here. He had never even been part of a corporate company and he hated it. He couldn’t imagine what it would have been like actually working for one.

“Yeah? Well, and I guess I just feel more comfortable hidden behind the computer than dealing with people face to face.” He trailed off, noticing her nodding in agreement. Maybe they were more similar than he thought. Safiya turned back to the computer screen, inspecting the code there with a pensive look. She didn’t seem to understand code, but at least she recognized how important it was.

“Well… I should get back to work. I need to get this module finished by tomorrow.”

“Alright, I’ll leave you to it then. Oh, but before I forget, would you like this? I’ve been making some progress in the mines, and I found it down there.” She passed him another crystal, but upon closer inspection, Sebastian realized it was a rare frozen tear, something that hadn’t been seen coming out of their mines since the last time Marlon made a long trip down there.

“Wow, how did you find one of these? They’re so hard to find!”

Safiya shrugged. “It was just sitting on the ground when I got down to level 40.”

“Forty levels? Wow, the mine is deeper than I thought. But seriously, this is so cool!”

“I’m guessing you like it then?”

“More like I love it, thank you!”

Safiya shot Sebastian a dazzling smile. “Of course. If I find some more I can bring them your way if you’d like,” she offered.

“Sure, that would be great. Thanks again!”

“Anytime. Well, I’ll let you get back to it. See you later, Sebastian!”

With that, Safiya left, smiling at him as she shut the door behind her. Sebastian turned the crystal over in his hands a few more times, smiling, before tucking it safely into his hoodie pocket.

* * *

 

The Flower Dance was the absolute worst festival ever, and no one could convince Sebastian otherwise. He hated being forced to dance, he hated the colorful monkey suit they stuffed him into, and he hated spring. Spring was too hot and bright for him. The only thing about the Flower Dance that was good to him was that it signified the end of spring, even if it brought along the season he hated more than spring. He at least liked the festivals in the summer, unlike the loathing he felt for the Flower Dance.

Sebastian hid off to the side with Sam and Abbie, hoping that making it seem like he wasn’t there would postpone the stupid dance at least a little longer. He had already been through two cigarettes since arriving not too long ago, and his fingers were itching to light up a third. Instead, he crossed his arms, knowing that most people in town were very unimpressed with his smoking habit. Glaring down at the ground, Sebastian kicked a rock by his feet.

He watched it bounce to a stop against a pair of black boots he didn’t recognize. When he looked up, Safiya was standing there, wearing a brown collared dress with a slit from the bust to the collar. She smiled at him, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. It took all of Sebastian’s willpower to fight off the blush he felt coming.

“Hey, guys.”

“Hi Safiya. So what do you think so far?” Sam asked.

She shrugged. “The flowers are pretty and I got a nice new scarecrow from Pierre’s little popup shop or whatever he calls it, but otherwise I don’t know yet. I just got here.”

“The dance is kinda stupid, but the food is always amazing. Oh, but don’t let any of the old timers like Lewis hear you say that the dance is stupid,” Sam replied.

“That’s exactly what it is though,” Sebastian grumbled.

“I take it you don’t enjoy dancing?” Safiya asked.

“No. I’m only here because I have to be. If I had a choice in the matter, I’d be locked inside my room right now.”

“It looks like Haley’s the only one who seems to enjoy this out of the people our age.”

“That’s because she’s always the one crowned Flower Queen, and she feeds off all the attention she gets because of that,” Sam explained.

Just then, Lewis announced that the dance would be starting soon and that all dancers not in their formal wear needed to change. Sebastian, Sam, and Abbie all groaned, but Sebastian the loudest. “Let’s just get this stupid thing over with. I’ll see you later, Safiya.”

“Alright. Try not to die,” she replied. Sebastian snorted as he stalked away to change. She really got it.

If Sebastian was going to be honest with himself, he didn’t exactly mind wearing a suit. His problem with it was that it didn’t fit properly, and robin’s egg blue was definitely not a color he’d be caught dead in. Being forced to wear an ill-fitting, awfully colored suit and do a stupid dance in front of everyone was just about equal to hell to him. He at least could be glad he wasn’t forced to do it by himself, because if he ever did he’d probably just drop dead right then and there just so he could get out of it. But then again, he couldn’t guarantee that Lewis wouldn’t attempt to make someone turn him into a macabre marionette of sorts to do it anyway. No, he’d just have to run and lock himself away somewhere where they wouldn’t find him. Sebastian shook his head. At least they didn’t do anything like that to him.

Sebastian settled himself in his usual position, beside Sam and across from Abbie, and tugged at the collar and waistband of his suit. The whole thing was just too small for him any more. Just as the music started, Sebastian noticed Safiya standing in the far corner by herself, her expression sad and lonely. He continued to look at her out of the corner of his eye, feeling bad that she had been forced into being alone for the stupid ceremony thanks to his (and Sam and Abbie’s) forced participation. Nearly missing a cue, Sebastian continued the stupid dance, wishing for it to end soon so he could get out of his monkey suit and leave.

Luckily, exactly that happened within the next few moments. Well, except for the leaving part. He was cornered by his mother, who looked… Not mad, but definitely disappointed.

“So, why was Safiya left all alone for this? She looked so sad, I felt awful. But she was too far away for me to be able to give her some company. Did you not invite her to dance?”

“No, I was hoping to not have to dance at all this year, but Lewis found where I was hiding and forced me out.”

Mom shot him an amused look. “I know you hate it, but at least be nice to Lewis. He tries so hard for this town.”

“I know.”

“You know, I just felt so bad for her sitting all alone that whole time. I can’t believe no one bothered to ask her, she’s such a sweet girl.” Sebastian shrugged, not looking at his mom. “Hey, Sebby, can you do me a favor? Next year, ask her to do the dance with you.”

“Mom!”

“Would it really be so bad?”

“I’m sure by next year she’ll have the town wrapped around her finger and everyone else will be asking her.”

“Well, I can’t deny that could happen, but just promise me you’ll at least ask her? I’ll tell you what, if you do this, I’ll do what I can to get you out of the next three after that one. I’ll tell Lewis you were called to the city for a job, or that I have a job in the city and need your help.”

“Okay, fine, I’ll ask her.”

“Ask who?”

Sebastian jumped. Standing off to the side was Safiya, carrying two drinks. She handed one to Sebastian, saying he looked like he was getting hot in the suit (which he was), before reiterating her question. Thankfully, Mom saved him from having to come up with an answer on the fly.

“Oh, I was just asking Sebby to ask something of Maru for me. It’s nothing exciting,” Mom explained, smiling. When Safiya looked away at Maru, Mom winked at Sebastian. He fought the urge to roll his eyes at her, despite how much he appreciated her save.

“Oh, okay then. I actually had a question for you too, Sebastian.”

“I’ll let you guys talk. See you guys later!” Mom said, turning and walking away with a wave.

Sebastian turned fully to Safiya. “So what’s up?”

“Well, I was trying to set up my wifi the other day so I could contact my parents. For some reason, just over the phone isn’t good enough for them, they want to video chat too. And they’ve been pestering me about it for weeks, but I just couldn’t figure out how to get the wifi set up. Anyway, I was wondering if I could ask you to do that for me? I’d pay you, of course.”

“Oh. Uh, sure. When do you want me to come by?”

Safiya shrugged. “Whenever’s fine with you works for me. Probably not today, I’m sure you want to get away from everyone after all that garbage. I’m always in my fields until 10, but after that it depends on the day.”

“I could do tomorrow, but I don’t know what time exactly. Here, do you have your phone? I could just text you tomorrow morning and we can figure it out then.”

“Oh, sure. Here, you can just put your number in,” Safiya replied, unlocking her phone and passing it to Sebastian. He passed his to her, allowing her to put in her own number. As he typed, Sebastian hesitated for just a moment before deciding to put in his nickname, Seb, instead of his full name. Out of shyness, he attempted to hide that by locking the screen before handing Safiya back her phone. When she returned his, he noticed that she had done the same thing: Her contact just said “Saf” with the Space Invaders-esque emoji beside it.

Sebastian let out a soft laugh. “Space Invaders, huh?”

Safiya laughed nervously. “Yeah, I just like that one. The game was fun.”

“Nothing wrong with that. I like it too.”

“Well, good. Anyway, I’m gonna head out, so just text me whenever you’re up tomorrow so we can figure out a time.”

“Sure. See you later.”

Safiya smiled and waved at him as she turned to leave. Sebastian stuffed his phone into his pocket, deciding it wouldn’t be too bad to be friends with her.

* * *

 

The next morning, Sebastian was woken up at a quarter to nine by repeated thuds above him. He groaned and tried stuffing his head under his pillow, but it was still far too loud for him to be able to get back to sleep. There would be no sleeping in for him today, not with Demetrius’ obnoxious noises directly above him.

For a moment, Sebastian wondered if it would be too early to text Safiya about the little job she wanted him to do, but then he remembered she got up every day at 6 AM so she could work in her field before it got too hot. She would definitely be awake enough to answer him.

**To: Saf**

**guess there’s no sleeping in for sebastian today**

Sebastian put his phone off to the side, thinking it’d take her a little bit to answer considering she said she works on her farm until 10, but not even two minutes later his phone pinged with a new text.

**From: Saf**

**Oh no what happened??**

**To: Saf**

**demetrius is tossing around his equipment on the ground above me, can’t sleep through that**

**From: Saf**

**Aw that sucks!! I’m sorry…**

**To: Saf**

**not your fault, it’s fine. anyway when do you want me to come by? not much point in me hanging out here trying to sleep still when demetrius is just gonna make me mad keeping me up**

**From: Saf**

**Uhhh whenever is fine. I was gonna chop down some more trees today but they’ll be there tomorrow**

**To: Saf**

**i can be there in like an hour if that works**

**To: Saf**

**also mom loves all the wood you’re always selling her, she says it’s Quality Wood**

**From: Saf**

**Sure that works!! Haha well I’m glad she likes it, I always have so much wood from trying to clear my stupid fields and I can’t use it all**

**To: Saf**

**alright well i’ll be there in a little bit then. and i’ll tell mom she can expect lots more wood from you, that’ll make her happy**

**From: Saf**

**Okay cool thanks! See ya in a bit!**

Sebastian got up and got himself ready, having to spend ten minutes in front of the mirror untangling his hair from his earrings. The walk to Safiya’s farm was rather uneventful once he got past the front door. His mom stopped him, asking what he was doing up so early and where he was headed. Once he explained Demetrius woke him up and that he had a job from Safiya, though, she let him go, smiling after him.

Upon reaching Safiya’s farm, Sebastian scanned her fields, looking for a flash of purple. He heard the sound of a falling tree off to the side and turned to see the tree hit the ground, revealing Safiya standing behind it, wiping off her forehead and hoisting an axe over her shoulder. When she looked up, Sebastian raised an arm and waved to her. She smiled and dug the point of her axe into the stump, clapping the sawdust off her hands as she moved toward him.

“Thought you said you weren’t going to be cutting down any trees today,” Sebastian said.

Safiya shrugged. “You said it’d take an hour, so I thought I’d have the time to get a couple down. I got three down, so that’s still some progress compared to how it was before.”

Sebastian pushed up his sleeves and put his hands in his hoodie pocket, looking around. “Yeah, I’m seeing a lot of progress.”

“Really? Some people have said they don’t see much of a change.”

“No, I see it. I helped Mom a little when she was fixing up your house, there were trees and weeds everywhere. You’ve done a good job so far.”

Safiya absolutely lit up at his praise, and it made Sebastian happy to see her looking so happy. “Thanks! Well, anyway, are you okay with starting work so early? If you’re still tired you can lay down in my place for a bit if you want.”

“No, it’s fine, but thanks. Where’s your setup and everything?”

“Here, I’ll show you.”

Safiya led the way for Sebastian into her house. It was a small place, with a single room making up the entire place. She had a small bed with plain gray and white bedding, a table with a single chair, and a small TV on a stand. She had a couple pictures on the wall and an amethyst cathedral geode, but otherwise all that was decorating the place was a potted plant and a small bowl on the table. There were a few boxes along the wall near her bed. Spread in front of her TV was a laptop and a mess of cables connecting a game console to the TV.

“Well, uh, welcome to my humble abode,” Safiya said, gesturing for Sebastian to come inside.

“I think this whole house is the size of just my basement.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty small, but I’m saving to buy a house upgrade from your mom. I’m going to get a coop first, which I almost have enough for, and then upgrade my house. And then I’ll get a barn before I upgrade my house again, and expand the coop and barn before I get a basement from your mom.”

“Looks like I’ve got a few good meals coming for me in the future.”

“Oh, yeah, you said Robin makes your favorite meals when she gets big jobs, right? That’s good, I’m glad I can cause that for you.”

Sebastian laughed. “Yeah, I guess you do. She made pumpkin soup for us the night you ordered your silo. Anyway, what do you need help with?”

“I can’t figure out how to set up my router so I can connect my phone, laptop, and game console. Would you be able to help me with that?”

“Yeah, it might take me a little while out here but I can set all that up for you.”

“Awesome, thank you! I’m gonna go finish chopping up those trees I cut down earlier, but if you need me let me know. Oh, and tell me when you start to get hungry, and I can go pick us up some lunch.”

“Sounds good.”

After two and a half hours, Sebastian was nearly finished, only needing Safiya to put in her passwords for her laptop and phone for him to be able to check the connections on those. He had already set up the router and gotten the game system set up (and he was impressed with her collection of games, though he was more of a tabletop gamer himself). Sebastian got up and stretched, heading out the front door to find Safiya so he could get her to let him into the last of her devices.

He found her deep within the tiny forest on her land, using her scythe to cut back weeds and wild hay. He waited for her to pause, not wanting to startle her, before calling out to get her attention. Sebastian led the way back to her house, gesturing for her to do what he needed her to.

“I’m not going to be much longer, I’m just going to make sure the connection works fine on everything once I get everything set up. You know, just do a basic search on your computer and load up some app on your phone with the data turned off.”

“Sure, no problem. Do what you need to, I don’t have anything to hide on either,” Safiya replied, laughing. “Are you getting hungry?”

“Um, a little, yeah.”

“Okay, once I get everything opened up for you I’ll go run down to the saloon and pick us up a lunch. I’d make something myself, but, as you can see, I don’t exactly have a kitchen to do any cooking.”

“Okay, thank you.”

Safiya left, humming as she walked, and Sebastian situated himself on the floor once again to set everything up. He noticed that her computer and phone backgrounds were two different photos of the same two dogs. Neither were her current bear of a dog Adonis, these ones were small black, brown, and white dogs with long fur and floppy ears. Sebastian would have to ask her about those dogs. He also noticed a file saved to the desktop titled “journal” on her laptop, but he didn’t dare even move the cursor near it.

By the time Sebastian was just about finished with the laptop and had already finished with the phone, Safiya returned, carrying a pizza box and two cans of soda. She settled herself on the ground beside him, pushing the box and one of the cans toward him. He quickly finished the laptop before setting it aside to start eating.

“Hey, so, who are those dogs in your background?” he asked around a bite of pizza.

“Oh, those were my dogs when I was younger. My parents still have them. I couldn’t have pets when I was in my apartment in the city, and they’d get so jealous of Adonis. Plus they’re pretty old now. I was planning on bringing them here, but combine Adonis with how much they’d miss my parents, I think it’s better that I just leave them with my parents and visit from time to time.”

“Your parents don’t live in the city?”

“No, they live in a smaller town about an hour outside the city I was living in. I moved to the city for college and ended up staying for some job I was offered once I graduated.”

“Oh. Wow, you were by yourself out there for a while then, huh?”

“Yeah, about six years.”

“I guess I can see why you’d just drop everything and move here then, if you hated it as much as you’ve said but had been there so long.”

Safiya shrugged. “That, and I always loved it here when I was younger.”

She fell silent, but Sebastian actually didn’t feel awkward for once. He felt comfortable in this silence, just sitting there eating with Safiya. Eventually, she broke the silence again herself.

“You said you want to move to the city, right?”

“Yeah, I’m planning on going to Zuzu City.” Safiya hummed in response. “What, something wrong with Zuzu?”

“No, not exactly. It’s a little bigger than where I was, so there’s a lot more going on. I’ve heard it’s not too bad, but I wouldn’t know for sure. But I’d never recommend where I was living a few hours north of Zuzu.”

“Huh. Well, I guess if Zuzu’s alright still, then I should be fine.”

“Promise you’ll come back to visit your friends in little old Pelican Town?”

Sebastian laughed, grabbing another slice of pizza. “Sure thing, Safiya.”

“Saf.”

“What?” Sebastian asked, looking up at her.

“Call me Saf.”

“Oh, okay then, Saf. You can call me Seb, then.”

They smiled at each other. Sebastian noticed a flush beginning to form on Safiya’s ears before she looked away. “Well, uh, how much do I owe you?” she asked.

“Oh, it’s fine.”

“No, I insist. Seriously, how much do you usually charge someone for helping them with this stuff?”

“Uh, like 150g.”

“Then, here.” Safiya dug in her coin purse and pulled out 150g, handing it to him. “I won’t let you not let me pay you back for making you lose your cigarettes and then not let me pay you for an actual job I asked you to do for me.”

“Okay, well, thanks then.” Sebastian pocketed the money before helping Safiya clean up the mess he made. He bade her goodbye before heading out. He shoved his hands back in his pockets, thinking about what Safiya had told him about her past the whole walk back up the mountain home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the dogs I described in this chapter are based on my own, Jack and Jill. They're shih tzus, and they're my babies (even though they're so old they probably could be considered elderly for dogs at this point). I miss them so much when I'm on campus... But it's almost my fall break so I'll get to see them again soon! Just a few more days until I head home!
> 
> I was told that the pronunciation of Safiya's name is a little unclear. The pronunciation I'm using is the one where the first syllable, "Saf," sounds like "soft" without the t.
> 
> Oh, and this is the dress Saf wore to the Flower Dance: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/30/6b/0f/306b0f407384554be63681c2e029da55.jpg I have one, and it's super comfortable and cute! I don't even really like dresses much, but I love wearing this one. I would have described it as a keyhole in the bodice like it is, rather than a slit, but Sebastian lives in his sweatshirt and is a basement dweller so of course he wouldn't know what that's called.
> 
> Anyway, thank you guys for making it this far with me! As always, let me know if you have any feedback!


	4. Sebastian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Safiya is becoming a pretty good friend of Sebastian’s. He even surprises himself when he finds himself flustered by her a few times in as many days.

For about a week after helping her with her connectivity issues, Sebastian saw little of Safiya. Now that summer was in full swing, she was busy getting set up for the new season. She had changed up the layout of her crops, and she was in the process of ordering a well and a coop from Sebastian’s mom. Add that to her near-daily trips to the mines to try to earn some more money, and she was a busy person.

That didn’t mean they weren’t speaking, of course. They texted back and forth quite a bit, especially considering Sebastian rarely texted anyone before getting Safiya’s number. They spoke of everything and nothing, all at once. Safiya would share stories about the things she encountered in the mines or complain about some blunder she had made, and Sebastian would keep her updated on games and movies they were interested in or complain about his family, just to name a few examples.

Really, it surprised Sebastian that he found it so easy to let out all the stuff he typically bottled up about his problems with his family. Sometimes he even found it hard to share with Sam, and Sam was his best friend and had been since they were toddlers. Sebastian simply supposed it was because Safiya wasn’t too familiar with all of the drama that had happened over the years that made it so easy to tell her. That, and she always kept her word about never telling a soul about his complaints. That was another thing he didn’t really like about living in such a small town, gossip got around so quickly and it was so hard to stop it from spreading once it started. It was like a wildfire, and he didn’t need that in his life. Sam was always supportive, but sometimes he would blurt things out without thinking about his surroundings or who was around.

Sebastian rolled out from under his motorcycle, tugging his phone out of his pants. He had thought he felt his phone vibrate, but there was no new notification. Sighing, he rolled back under his motorcycle, returning to changing the oil. Safiya hadn’t answered his last text yet, and he had sent it half an hour ago, before he even started changing the oil. Normally, she answered within a couple minutes, even if she was sending a book of a text to him. Sure, he knew she was busy and didn’t expect her to always answer right away, but he enjoyed talking with her. He wanted her to answer so he could keep doing just that.

He heard the front door open and shut, and footsteps approached his place in the garage. Sebastian tilted his head a little to see who it was. All he could see were a pair of boots, but he knew exactly who they belonged to. He pushed himself out from under the motorcycle.

“Oh, hey Saf,” Sebastian said, pushing some hair out of his eyes. She turned to his motorcycle, inspecting it.

“Is this yours?” she asked.

“What, you haven’t seen my motorcycle before? Huh, I guess I haven’t shown it to you.” Sebastian pulled himself back under the motorcycle and got back to work putting the oil filter back in place. He noticed Safiya settle herself on the ground beside him out of the corner of his eye. “Sometimes, after sundown, I make the long ride out of Stardew Valley. There’s nothing else like it, blazing along the empty stretch of road toward the faint city glow…”

“I think I know what you mean. I love driving, but when I moved to the city I had to leave my car at my parents’ house. Parking was too expensive. Though I’m sure a motorcycle would be ten times better than just a car with the window down.”

“It’s way better.” Sebastian paused. “Once I’ve saved up enough money, I’m going to head out on my own, to the city and beyond. Just me and my bike.”

“I wish I could travel like that too…”

Sebastian grimaced. That was one problem with getting too tied down to a place, it made it hard to leave for one reason or another. Safiya would barely be able to get away for even just part of a day to the Calico Desert if the buses were running still, thanks to all the work her farm needs from her. Especially if she continued to expand it the way she was. He tightened the last bolt and set his wrench down, sighing.

“There we go, oil’s changed.” Sebastian pushed himself out from under the motorcycle and sat up on his creeper, making sure the wheels settled into a crack in the concrete so he wouldn’t slip. “Hey… Maybe I’ll take you for a ride someday.”

“That sounds fun!”

Sebastian smiled at her. “Great. We can figure out details later on.”

Safiya returned the smile, turning to look back at the detail on the handlebars. Sebastian realized he was staring at her, but he just couldn’t bring himself to look away. When she looked back at him, still smiling, he smiled again.

“Well, I need to get going. I just ordered a coop from your mom, and now I’m back to pennies to my name again. I need to get to the mines before it gets too late so I can find some crystals to sell,” Safiya said, sighing. She tugged pulled herself to her feet and offered her hand to Sebastian, easily pulling him to his feet.

“Yeah, you should probably get going then. Kinda need money to be able to live,” Sebastian said, rubbing a hand across his forehead. Safiya giggled, trying to hide her smile behind her hand. “What?”

“You just smeared a bunch of grease onto your face.”

“Shit, that’s just awesome.”

“Here, use this,” Safiya said, handing him a clean handkerchief. Sebastian scrubbed at his forehead for a moment before looking back at her.

“Did I get it?”

“No, you actually made it worse. Here, let me.”

Safiya gently took the handkerchief from Sebastian and stepped closer to him, pulling him down to be closer to her level. She pushed his bangs off to the side, resting her hand carefully against the side of his face as she dabbed at the stain on his forehead.

Sebastian felt a flush crawling its way up his neck and suddenly wished for his hoodie, despite the fact that it was sweltering in the new summer sun. She was so close that he was able to see a faint pattern of freckles on her left cheek, going from the corner of her eye to just below the corner of her mouth. Her hands were surprisingly soft, considering the hard work she did every day, and they were warm. Safiya paused and made eye contact with him, giving him a sweet smile, before finishing up what she was doing and shoving the handkerchief back in her pocket. To him, it seemed like she hesitated a moment before moving her hand from his face, but he couldn’t tell if that was what happened or if he was imagining things.

“Well, uh, I’ll see you later, Seb,” Safiya said shyly, rubbing her arm.

“Thanks, Saf. See you,” Sebastian replied.

Safiya walked off in the direction of the mines, and Sebastian found himself watching her go until she rounded the corner of the path. He could faintly hear her calling out a greeting to Linus. Finally, Sebastian found the ability to move again and went back to his room after cleaning up some. He dropped onto his bed and threw an arm over his eyes, letting out a long, shaky sigh as he felt himself flushing.

He definitely had it bad for her.

* * *

 

It was Maru’s birthday, and Sebastian was struggling to keep himself in a good mood so he wouldn’t start yet another fight.

Despite what everyone seemed to think, Sebastian really did care about his sister. The problem was that he struggled to keep from taking out his frustrations on others sometimes, and since he lived with Maru it just got especially bad with her sometimes. He always felt bad, but somehow he always managed to screw up apologizing to her, too. It also didn’t help that sometimes, Sebastian felt like an afterthought compared to Maru.

Demetrius would barely even acknowledge Sebastian’s own birthday without Maru or Mom half forcing him to. Hell, he didn’t even sign the birthday cards the family got for him himself, he let Mom or sometimes even Maru sign for him. Sebastian signed for himself on Demetrius’ cards, so why couldn’t he be bothered with at least that tiny of an effort?

It was a stupid thing to be bothered by, but compared to Maru’s birthday, it wasn’t much to ask for. Demetrius would decorate their lab for her, and he always had some component she had mentioned needing for her newest project ready to give to her. For Sebastian, any and all effort only ever came from Mom and Maru, and sometimes Sam and Abbie if they wanted in on the family celebration instead of throwing one of their own for him. Which made it sound even more stupid, when he had people still doing things for him, but he just didn’t think it was very fair how little Demetrius would do for him when he would do a freaking triple backflip for Maru.

Sebastian had gotten up early that day to give Maru her birthday present from himself. He had gotten his hands on a few battery packs, and he knew she was working on some smaller projects that needed batteries. She had been super excited, so Sebastian hoped that that might cancel out any possible things that could happen to upset her day.

Sebastian had retreated back to his room not long after giving Maru her gift, not wanting to get in the way of any of Demetrius’ plans for her. He would go back up if Mom wanted him to, but not otherwise. Instead, he’d occupy himself by working on another gig he had, leaving his door cracked in case Mom called for him.

After about an hour Sebastian heard Safiya’s laughter float down the stairs, along with Maru excitedly telling her something. Leaning back in his chair, Sebastian assumed Safiya was giving Maru a birthday present, and it was something Maru really wanted or needed. He doubted she’d come down to visit him, the basement gremlin, on someone else’s special day.

Not even a minute later, Sebastian was proven wrong. He heard quiet footsteps come down the stairs and a soft knock on his doorframe before Safiya poked her head into the room. When he smiled at her, she came in and pulled a stool beside him, settling herself comfortably cross-legged on the stool.

“What’s up, Seb?” she asked.

“Not much. Trying to avoid getting in the way of Demetrius’ plans for his princess’ birthday.”

Safiya grimaced. He knew she didn’t like the way Demetrius treated him, but there wasn’t really much that could be done by that point. Their constant fighting for as long as it had gone on had ruined any chances of fixing their relationship.

“Did things at least go well with Maru herself when you gave her something?”

“Yeah, it did. I’m just glad that so far I haven’t managed to screw anything up on her birthday.”

“Well, that’s good.”

“Yeah. Well, any plans for the day? Gonna be a miner again today, or a lumberjack?”

“Uh, actually, neither unless you’re busy. I ordered this game I used to play with a friend and it got here today, but it’s a tabletop one and you need at least two players. Would you be interested?”

“Yeah, sounds like fun. Do we need to go to your place?”

Safiya laughed awkwardly and slung off her backpack. “Actually, I brought it with me hoping you’d say yes.”

Sebastian laughed. “You’re a girl after my own heart, Saf. Here, we can set it up on the table over here.”

“I’m not interrupting any work?”

“Nah, I’m at a good stopping point. Let me just clear the table off.”

“Okay. All the cards probably got all mixed up bouncing around in my backpack so I’ll just organize them really quick.”

Once they finished their separate tasks, Sebastian settled himself across the table from Safiya and watched her set up the board. She fanned out the character cards, letting him pick one, and then handed him the tokens he needed before setting her own character up. She instructed him to place his character on the starting point listed on his character card, doing the same with hers. Once she explained the basic goal of the game, she handed him the dice, saying he could go first.

Four hours later, Sebastian was clenching his teeth so hard his jaw hurt in an effort to keep from laughing. Somehow, Sebastian had managed to get teleported to the middle ring of the board and pick up a talisman and was just waiting at the door to the inner realm, trying to get the right rolls to make it through the check. Safiya, on the other hand, was trapped in the outer realm still, strong enough to pulverize both the sentinel and the door with her little toe if she could only reach them, and getting more and more frustrated as every turn she had to just keep walking back and forth in front of the sentinel guarding the bridge to the middle realm due to too low of rolls.

Sebastian bit his cheek, hoping the pain would keep him from laughing out loud as Safiya basically prayed to Yoba over her dice before she rolled them again. She clapped her hand over her eyes after she tossed the dice.

“Seb, count up for me. I’m too nervous,” she asked.

Sebastian sat up and leaned forward, counting up her roll for her. “You rolled a five.”

“How many spaces do I need to be able to make it across the bridge?”

“Seven.”

Safiya let out what Sebastian could only describe as the sound of a strangled seal and slammed her hand on the table. “I can’t believe this! This stupid sentinel is just watching me pace back and forth like an idiot, ‘oh hey how ya doin’ just passing though oh whoops gotta go back now oh hello again on my way past for the tenth time!’ I could literally crumble it to dust without even rolling to attack I’m so strong, and I just can’t get the rolls to be able to move past him! God, I could even splinter your door you’re stuck at and be through in no time before it magically rebuilds and slams in your face, but nooooo, I’m stuck in this stupid outer realm just watching from across the river because I can’t even get to a forest to build a raft with this stupid axe I wasted money on!”

Sebastian lost it halfway through her rant, laughing so hard he was doubled over with his forehead on the table. Safiya gave him an overdramatic pout, and he laughed even harder. He clutched his stomach, trying but failing to stop laughing so it wouldn’t hurt his stomach any more. Gasping, he struggled to find the ability to speak.

“I’m so sorry, but this is hilarious. I never thought I’d see you so animated, especially over a game,” he panted, fighting off another round of giggles.

Safiya let out a short laugh, rolling her eyes. “It’s fine, I get like this all the time with games. Especially competitive ones. I could say the same thing about you, though. I never thought I’d see you laugh that hard,” she retorted.

“What can I say, your blundering idiot impression is absolute perfection.”

“Thank you, I’m here all week.”

“Well, do you want to stop, or would you prefer to keep playing?”

“Unless that was a hint you want to stop for the day, I’m not about to back down now.”

“No, I want to see this through. I’m having a lot of fun, actually.”

“I am too. Thanks for doing this with me,” Safiya said, smiling at him. Sebastian smiled back, and as he was reaching over to grab the dice, his door squeaked open some. They looked over, just as Sebastian closed his hand over the dice and pulled away, and they saw Mom poke her head into the room, smiling at them.

“Hey, guys. I was just curious what all the excitement was about,” she said, moving so she was fully standing just inside the doorway.

“Hi, Robin. We were getting worked up over this game I brought over, that’s all,” Safiya explained, smiling at his mom. When Mom looked over at him, he gave her a small smile.

“Well, I’m glad you guys are having some fun together. Want me to bring down some snacks or drinks for you?”

Sebastian and Safiya glanced at each other. Sebastian shrugged, signaling to Safiya it was up to her.

“I think we’re okay, but thank you, Robin!”

“Of course. You’re welcome to stay for Maru’s birthday dinner tonight, Safiya. It’ll be in about two hours if you’d like.”

“Oh, thank you!”

With that, Robin turned and headed back up the stairs, pulling the door halfway shut behind her. Sebastian and Safiya turned back to each other. “You don’t have to stay if you don’t want to, you know.”

“I know, but I’d like to, if you don’t mind,” Safiya replied, shrugging.

“No, of course not! That’s not what I was trying to imply. I just wanted to be sure you weren’t feeling pressured into staying by my mom,” Sebastian hurriedly explained, feeling himself begin to blush. He could feel his anxiety beginning to stir deep within him.

“Alright, then I’ll stay. No offense taken,” Safiya said, smiling at him. Sebastian felt himself melt back into a relaxed state. He wondered momentarily how she had managed to defuse the beginnings of an anxiety episode so quickly when normally it had to run its course for a few hours, but he let it slip from his mind once she reminded him it was his turn to move.

Two hours later, Sebastian had won the game, but he knew it was entirely due to the fact that Safiya somehow kept managing to get awful rolls and could never get a high enough roll to make it both to and through any obstacles she had to pass. He tried to console her in her defeat, reminding her that he just got lucky with rolls, before they both dissolved into laughter over just how overdramatic she had been the whole game. They had barely managed to contain themselves by the time Mom called them up for dinner, nearly falling apart again over the dinner made up of some of Maru’s favorite foods.

They all made small talk over the food, with Sebastian actually feeling relatively comfortable for once. He felt like he wouldn’t get himself in over his head in a debate with Demetrius that would inevitably dissolve into a fight with Safiya there; somehow, she just managed to keep him calm and relaxed. And he was glad for it! He didn’t want to ruin yet another of Maru’s birthdays by starting another fight.

“Hey, Saf, pass the salt please,” Sebastian said, barely glancing up from his plate.              

“Only if you trade me for the cauliflower,” she replied, still reaching for the salt shaker. He handed over the steamed vegetables, taking the salt shaker in return. “Thanks, Seb.”

Sebastian salted his roasted peppers, glancing up only as he reached for his drink. He noticed the look his mother had on his face, smiling as if she knew some big secret, and frowned at her before taking a drink. Safiya noticed his frown and glanced over at Mom, but by then she had wiped the look from her face and gone back to her dinner. Safiya looked back at him, her eyebrow quirked in question as she chewed, but he merely shrugged and went back to his own food.

Safiya got up after the main course finished, saying she had to be up early to be able to get her chores done in time for the luau the next day. She cleaned up her spot while Mom cut her a slice of the pie she had made, sealing it with a plastic wrap onto a plate. Safiya thanked everyone and bade them goodbye, promising to visit with them all the next day at the festival.

By the time Sebastian was finished with his food and had cleaned up his mess, his phone had gone off three separate times with texts. Once he reached his room, he dug his phone out and checked the messages. One was from Abigail, asking if she should tease Sam once again about the year he brought a bad fish for the luau, and the other two were from Safiya. He quickly sent a denial to Abigail before opening Safiya’s texts.

**From: Saf**

**Thanks again for playing that game with me!! We should do it again, that was really fun**

**From: Saf**

**Oh and tell your mom thanks for the pie, it was delicious!!**

Sebastian smiled, quickly ascending the stairs to shout down the hall to his mom to pass on Safiya’s message. He headed back down and threw himself unceremoniously onto his couch to respond.

**To: Saf**

**even though i totally slaughtered you ;)**

**From: Saf**

**Hey we all know that was just beginners’ luck!!**

**To: Saf**

**hahahahaha i know dont worry! but yeah it was a lot of fun, we should play solarion chronicles too at some point. i think youd like that one too**

**From: Saf**

**Sure sounds like fun!! Anyway I have to go to bed, gotta be up early tomorrow :( I’ll see you at the luau!! Good night and sweet dreams!!!**

**To: Saf**

**yeah see ya then! good night!**

Sebastian didn’t feel very tired, but thanks to Safiya’s message, he felt as if he had to at least get into his own bed. However, he found himself drifting asleep soon after, his thoughts wandering to the events of the day as he fell asleep.

* * *

 

Sebastian found himself at the beach and even in some swim trunks at 9 AM on the dot. Mom had been extremely excited for the luau this year, so she got everyone up early. He settled himself under the shade of some palm trees, watching the water lap against the shore. Lewis had already been there for hours even by the time he and his family had arrived, setting the place up so it looked as immaculate as a beach could look for the governor’s arrival. The man had barely arrived himself when he got there, and already Lewis was poised to brown-nose him all day. Sebastian understood wanting to make a good impression on a big figure like the governor, but Lewis was almost to the point of overdoing it he was so determined.

About an hour later, Sebastian heard Lewis calling Safiya’s name. He looked up to see her approaching Lewis and the governor, wearing a t-shirt dress and with the ties of a swimsuit of her own poking out of the back of her collar. She stopped to speak to Marnie for a moment before climbing the ladder to the potluck pot, dropping in some sort of sliced fruit or vegetable before climbing back down and looking around. Sebastian raised his hand and waved to her from his spot in the shade, and once she noticed him she trotted over.

“Morning, Seb. I didn’t think you’d be here yet,” she said, settling herself beside him on his beach towel.

“Mom was super excited for today, so she woke us all up early. Normally I wouldn’t be here for another half an hour or so. That’s why Sam and Abbie aren’t here yet, either.”

“Oh, okay. I was wondering where they were. So, what did you bring for the potluck? Anything good?”

“Uh, I had some fancy coffee beans left over from my last trip to the city, so I brought those. They use coffee in some types of stew, so I figured it’d be fine in this soup thing.”

“I think that should be fine. I was going to bring some of my produce, but nothing was ready this morning. Luckily I was worried enough about that that I saved a bunch of the fruit I foraged in the last few days, so I brought the most ripe spice berry I had.”

“That should go well with what others have brought. You should be fine.”

They settled back against the trees, watching the ebb and flow of the water while they waited for the rest of their friends. As more and more people showed up, more and more ingredients were added to the stew, and Sebastian could see how hungry the governor was getting. They had to wait until 11:30, though, because that was when the soup was served. Sam and Abbie finally arrived, with Sam towing Penny along, and they all added their ingredients to the soup before moving toward Sebastian and Safiya.

Finally, the food was ready. Everyone gathered around the giant pot, waiting to hear the governor’s opinion. Luckily, he liked it, saying the valley never disappointed. Safiya let out an audible sigh of relief, so Sebastian patted her shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile.

After they ate, Sebastian, Safiya, Sam, Abbie, and Penny moved to the edge of the pier and sat with their feet dangling in the water. Abbie was completely absorbed in attempting to search the water for any fantastic beasts, thanks to her overhearing the wizard talking about the merfolk being curious about the festival, so Sam and Penny went off to the side to sit and chat together. That left Sebastian with Safiya again.

“Wow, does Sam have a crush on Penny?” Safiya whispered.

“Yeah, he has for a while now, but he’s never worked up the courage to tell her. I think he’s got a chance if he’d just tell her, but he won’t do it,” Sebastian replied softly.

Safiya glanced over her shoulder at them. “Well, Penny’s leaning pretty close to him. I’ve only ever seen her that absorbed in something when it’s a book. I’d say she likes him too.”

“That’s what I tell him, but he won’t believe me.”

Safiya pulled one foot out of the water and tucked it under her other knee, kicking her remaining foot to make ripples. “Telling someone you like them is a lot harder than it seems, though. It’s super stressful, and you’re laying yourself out bare for that person. And sometimes, you can’t tell if they’re going to walk with you or all over you,” she said. Her voice had taken on a sad tone that Sebastian had never heard her use before. He looked over at her, watching as she stared at her own reflection in the water.

“I’m guessing you had someone walk all over you once?” he asked.

“Yeah, it was a long time ago though.”

“I’m sorry.”

Safiya shrugged. “It’s not your fault. You wouldn’t even know the guy. It hurt at first, sure, but I guess it’s better that way than to deal with the pain of realizing it after investing time into building a doomed relationship.”

“Well, whoever it was is a dick and didn’t deserve you, anyway. You deserve better than someone like that.”

“Someone like you, you mean?” she asked, giggling a little and nudging him with her shoulder. Sebastian whipped his head up to look at her, face bright red and mouth gaping open. “I’m just teasing. Hey, do you think it’s been 20 minutes since we ate yet?”

With that, Safiya stood and pulled off her dress, tightening the straps on her swimsuit top, before backing up a few steps. Sebastian turned to look at her, willing his blush to go away.

“What are you-?”

Safiya ran forward and launched herself off the pier, cannonballing into the water. A huge wave of water rose up, soaking Sebastian’s entire front. When she surfaced, Safiya burst out laughing, saying he looked like a wet puppy. Sam, Penny, and Abbie turned to look.

“Oh, what, we’re swimming now? I’m so in!” Sam cried, throwing himself off the pier. His gravity defying hair melted in the water, covering half his face once he surfaced. Penny and Abbie laughed, Penny gracefully lowering herself into the water and Abbie diving in. He could hear screaming and splashing from the shore behind him, signaling that Vincent and Jas had run into the water too. Another splash hit Sebastian’s legs, and he turned back to Safiya.

“Come on, Seb! You’re the only one not swimming now. Join us!” she said, smiling up at him.

Sebastian sighed. “Only because I’m already soaked, thanks to a certain someone,” he replied, giving Safiya a pointed look. She only laughed and pushed herself back some in the water.

Sebastian took off his hoodie – thank Yoba he had worn a zip up one, a pull over one would have been a nightmare to take off while soaked – and slipped into the water. Safiya grinned at him and swam a bit further away to float.

“I love swimming. It’s been so long since I’ve been able to,” she said.

“There weren’t any pools in your city?”

“Oh, there were, but I only had access to nasty public ones. Not only was I not about to pay a ridiculous amount of money just to go swimming, but I wouldn’t trust that water as far as I could throw you. I don’t care how much chlorine they dumped into it.”

“And the ocean is better?”

“Well, it’s naturally clean because it’s salt water and has natural filters, and it’s always moving.”

“Good point.”

For a few hours, they and several of the other people their age swam around, watching the water move and the people on shore wander around. By the time the sun went down, Sebastian was so tired from treading water that he felt like he could fall asleep right there on the beach. Safiya, teasing him for being lazy, basically dragged him to shore and back to their spot under the palm trees. For a while, they laid there, watching the stars appear.

“One of the few good things about this place is you can see all the stars,” Sebastian said, breaking the silence. He saw Safiya look at him out of the corner of his eye.

“You like space too?”

“Yeah, the science of it is more Maru’s thing, but it’s just so beautiful, you know? You’ve seen the pictures from the space station, right?”

“Yeah, I have. I think the different colors the nebulas can get is my favorite part.”

“It’s amazing. If it wasn’t for the fact that it’s so hard to become an astronaut, I wouldn’t have minded becoming one myself. Being able to go up there and see it all without any light pollution or stupid things to distract me… That would be amazing.”

“Yeah, it would.”

They watched the stars together for a little while longer, enveloped by a comfortable silence. Eventually, they gathered up their things, and Sebastian walked Safiya home again. This time, though, wasn’t a long walk of empty small talk. Instead, they chatted about anything they could think of, easily flowing from one topic to another. Sebastian found himself not wanting to leave once they reached Safiya’s porch, but it was already so late, and she got up early every day to take care of her chores. Instead, he simply bade her goodnight, walking away with a smile on his face once she was back in her own house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the game they're playing in that one section is based on my actual experiences the first time I ever played this game called Talisman with one of my friends and her family and a couple of their coworkers. I was the one pacing the sentinel, and Saf's rant is pretty much what mine sounded like. Otherwise, though, Talisman is a lot of fun! It's a long game, but it's worth it. Like, the five of us playing my first time didn't finish after I think like four-ish hours. Anyway, if you're into tabletop games I highly recommend Talisman!
> 
> ALSO lately I've been playing this dating sim called Collar x Malice (I LOVE it, if you like dating sims and have a Vita I highly recommend it!) and there's this terrorist group in it that you're trying to stop with the guys of all the different routes. And the terrorist group is called Adonis so now I'm torn between reacting excitedly when I hear that name because mythology/Saf's dog and sadly because of the horrible things that group is doing in Collar x Malice.
> 
> Once again, thank you guys so much, and if you have any ideas or encouragement or anything I'd love to hear it! :D


	5. Safiya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A series of revelations brings Safiya to the realization that things aren’t always what they seem – or rather, what she thinks they seem like.

Safiya double checked the slip of paper in her hand. She had seen a message on the request board that Jodi had posted, and she just so happened to have the item Jodi was requesting in her backpack right at that moment. Safiya took the note and began making her way to the family’s home, pulling the item out of her backpack.

When she entered the house, she heard a few musical instruments being tuned in Sam’s room. A guitar screeched, and she heard two people laugh. Safiya smiled and walked past the door, deciding she would poke her head in on her way out. She found Jodi in her kitchen, drying some dishes.

“Oh, hello, Safiya! Did you need something?” Jodi asked, drying her hands on her towel.

“I saw your message on the request board, and I had a spare ear of corn. Did you still need that?”

“Yes, I did! This will be perfect for the dinner I have planned for tonight. Thank you, Safiya. Here, let me get your pay,” Jodi replied, smiling warmly at her.

“Oh, you don’t have to.”

“Of course I do, you did a job for me. Here, Robin told me you’re saving to upgrade your farm. This isn’t too much, but you can add it to your savings for that,” Jodi said, smiling at her.

“Thank you, Jodi!”

“Of course! Have a good day now, Safiya.”

“You too!”

Safiya smiled and turned away, allowing Jodi to return to her own chores. She heard another screech from the guitar, but this one was not followed by laughter. Instead, some off-key notes floated through the door, followed by a pause and then a few more notes closer on key. Approaching the door, Safiya waited for a pause in the din from the instruments to knock.

“Did you hear that?” she heard Sam ask someone else with him.

“Safiya’s at the door,” Sebastian’s voice responded. Safiya smiled, glad she would get to see Sebastian sooner than she thought she would. She was also excited that Sebastian had come to recognize her knock.

“How do you know that?” Sam’s voice asked.

“That’s how she knocks. I’m letting her in,” Sebastian replied. Footsteps approached the door, and it swung open to reveal Sebastian standing there, giving her a small smile. “Hey, Saf.”

“Hi, Seb. Hey, Sam. What’re you guys up to?”

“We’re having band practice!” Sam cried from the center of the room, striking a pose with his guitar. Sebastian stepped aside, allowing Safiya to come inside the room.

“That’s awesome! Do you have a name yet?”

“No, we’re still working out the kinks,” Sam replied.

“We only just decided to become an actual band, so we don’t have much yet,” Sebastian added, stepping behind the synthesizer near the wall.

“We don’t even know what kind of music to make. There’s too many possibilities,” Sam said.

“Oh, really? What have you guys been thinking about?” Safiya asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Well, what kind of music do you like, Saf?” Sebastian asked.

Safiya hummed, thinking. “Well, I really like fast, heavy music. But I also really like different sounds, you know? Like, I really like heavy metal and hard rock and hardcore punk, but I also like different sounds of them. Melodic metal, experimental rock, ska punk…” She looked up at Sam and Sebastian’s surprised faces. “What?”

“You seem more like the type to like alternative pop or EDM, that’s all,” Sam said.

Safiya burst into laughter. “Everyone always says that, but I don’t know what they mean!”

“But you have a really awesome taste in music,” Sebastian said. Safiya smiled at him.

“Thanks! I do listen to a little of the stuff you mentioned, Sam, but it’s not my main thing. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, I get it. A little of everything, but a lot of a certain few,” Sebastian replied.

“Exactly.”

Sam screwed up his face, thinking hard. “You know, experimental rock sounds like it’d be fun to play,” he said slowly, still thinking.

Sebastian turned to him, nodding. “That’s true. I’d be able to actively participate in the song too, rather than just background or solos.”

“Yeah. Yeah! This sounds like a great idea! This sound would be perfect for the band!” Sam said, excitement dripping from his voice.

Safiya smiled. “I’m glad I could help!”

“Yeah, thank you! With my guitar skills and Sebastian’s wizardry on the synthesizer, we’re gonna be a screaming success. I just know it!” Sam replied. “Now we just need to find someone for drums.”

“I can’t help you there, I’m no good at any music related thing I’ve tried,” Safiya said.

Sam waved her comment off. “You’ve already helped enough, it’s fine. Maybe we can ask Abbie. If she can’t herself, then she’s sure to know someone who can. She always seems to know everything I ever ask about.”

“Well, I hope she can help! Anyway, I wish I could stick around some more, guys, but I need to go. I have to get more of my fields cleared today so I can get some more seeds planted tomorrow,” Safiya said.

“Aw, that sucks,” Sam replied, picking his guitar up.

“You’ll be able to get what you need done, though. You always do,” Sebastian said, playing a few quick chords on his synthesizer.

Safiya giggled. “Thanks for the confidence booster. Anyway, I’ll see you guys later!”

Safiya let herself out, taking one last peek at Sebastian as he eased a few more chords from the synthesizer. Smiling to herself, she headed through the forest route back to her farm. She grabbed some wireless headphones and hooked her axe, scythe, and pickaxe onto her toolbelt, setting out into the tiny forest in the southern part of her farm to begin taming the wilderness on her property.

* * *

 

A few days later, Safiya found herself settled on a cushion in Abbie’s room, playing the console version of Journey of the Prairie King with her. She had heard the music she recognized from hours spent playing the arcade version on saloon nights floating through Pierre’s general store, and she followed it to Abbie’s room. The next thing she knew, Abbie had conscripted her into helping to beat the first level.

While she couldn’t say she was an expert herself, Abbie was definitely awful at video games.

It took them a couple tries, since Abbie insisted upon being alive when Safiya finished the level for them, but finally they beat it with both of their characters alive. Abbie jumped up and cheered, pumping her fists into the air.

“Hey, that was fun! Thanks, Safiya. I didn’t think you’d know how to work a joystick so well! But it seems you’re experienced,” Abbie said once she finally calmed down.

Safiya shrugged. “I play the arcade version a lot at the saloon, so once I got the hang of the console controls it wasn’t too bad.”

“Well, still! I suck at this game, no matter how much I practice,” Abbie pouted. She flopped back onto the floor, her arms splayed. “Now I’m bored, though. I don’t want to play more in case I lose again and ruin this feeling of success.”

Safiya leaned back on her hands. “Do you have anything else to do?”

“Not really.” Abbie sat up, stretching. “Do you have to be anywhere, or have any chores to do?”

Checking her phone for the time, Safiya shook her head. “Not for a while, no. Why, do you have an idea?”

“I just thought maybe we could talk about some stuff. I feel like I don’t know you well enough, considering we’re friends.”

“Well then, what sort of stuff do you want to know?”

“I dunno. Can we turn this into twenty questions?”

“I guess if that’s what you want to do, then it’s fine with me.”

Abbie sat up, thinking long and hard. Safiya moved so she was leaning against Abbie’s bed, waiting in anticipation. She didn’t like talking about her life in the city much, so she just hoped Abbie wouldn’t ask her about that. Anytime before, any likes or dislikes, anything about her life here, all of it was okay except for living in the city.

“Do you have a weakness to anything?”

“Do you mean food, or a type of thing, or…?”

“Any weakness of any kind.”

“Well, I love chocolate. Like, a lot. And I have a weakness for dogs, especially huge ones that think they’re small or small and fluffy ones. What about you, any weaknesses?”

“I love anything Spirit’s Eve, and I absolutely adore amethyst. It’s my favorite crystal.”

“Me too!”

Abbie grinned at Safiya. They continued to bounce questions back and forth for nearly an hour, asking about childhoods, favorite foods, most hated movies, anything they could think of. Safiya was glad that Abbie had stayed away from her time in the city; it hadn’t been a very good time in her life, and Safiya didn’t like to think about it too much. Finally, Abbie reached her twentieth question for Safiya.

“Do you like anyone?” Safiya sputtered for a moment, and an evil grin appeared on Abbie’s face. “You do! Who is it? Is it a guy or a girl? You have to tell me, that’s how twenty questions goes!”

“Can I skip this one?” Safiya timidly asked.

“Absolutely not! You have to tell me who you like! I told you about the time I fell into the pond and panicked about a sea monster touching me when it was just algae!”

Safiya took a deep breath and chewed on her lip, digging her nails into the meat of her thumb. She could feel her face heating up more and more. “Fine. I, uh… I like Sebastian.”

“Seriously?” Abbie shouted, jumping to her knees. She quickly shuffled toward Safiya, ungracefully tipping over once or twice in the process, before settling beside her. Safiya nodded, feeling her flush deepen. “How long? When did you realize it?”

“Um… I dunno. I thought he was cute when I met him on my first day here, and then I guess it’s just all been downhill from there. Wait, you aren’t mad?”

“Why would I be mad?”

“I thought you liked him?”

Abbie laughed. “No, you’re fine. I did for a little bit when we were younger, but it just ended up being too weird. But wow, you’ve liked him for a long time then if you basically liked him right away then, right?”

“Yeah. I mean, at first he was a little, uh, curt. But I had you and Sam and Robin and even Maru telling me that he’s really nice once you get to know him, so I just kinda kept at it. And once he started to open up to me, I realized that it was more than just a fleeting crush and that I really liked his personality too. It seemed to me like he was just a little wary because he wanted to keep his space even if we were friends, you know? And I guess when he realized I was going to do that for him, he opened up to me.”

“Really? Yeah, me and Sam were wondering what you did to get him to open up that quickly to you. He never warms up that quickly with anyone.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. He’s so reserved, it’s not even funny. But with you, he’s more open than I think I’ve ever seen.”

Safiya was silent for a moment. “Really?” Abbie nodded. “But I didn’t think he thought of me as anything more than just as a friend.”

Abbie gave her a look that was almost exasperated. “Seriously. Seriously? You think he only thinks of you as a friend?”

“Well, yeah. Why? What are you saying?”

“Have you not seen the way he looks at you?”

Safiya was shocked. He looked at her in a way that implied he liked her? “No. What do you mean?”

“Well, I guess it makes sense you haven’t. He only does it when you aren’t looking.”

“What? How does he look at me?”

Abbie was silent for a moment, thinking. “You know how he likes to stargaze sometimes and looks like he wants to just go, like, live in the stars or something? As if they’re the most beautiful thing in the universe?”

“Yeah, why?”

“He looks at you the way he does the stars in the night sky.”

Safiya felt her eyes widening. “What?”

“That’s how he looks at you. I really think he likes you, too.”

Safiya was silent for a few moments, staring off into space. “Holy shit.”

“I know. I’ve known him for pretty much my entire life, and I’ve never seen him like this.”

“How obvious has it been?”

“Well, I know Sam’s been trying to find a time to ask Sebastian about it. Robin’s been rooting for you guys for a while, and Maru seems to know too. My and Sam’s families are at least suspicious. Gus and Emily too, oh, and Lewis-.”

“Okay, I get it. Basically the whole town knows except me.”

“I’ll be honest, though, I don’t think Sebastian knows you like him, either. I don’t know how, because you’re about as bad as he is, but as far as I know he doesn’t know.”

“I’m that obvious?”

“Yeah, both of you. You’re both kind of idiots. You’re super obvious, yet totally oblivious.”

“Wow. Um, this is a, uh, major thing. I had no idea.”

“I can tell. I won’t hold you here any longer, I can let you go home or something and I guess think about it,” Abbie said. “I hope I didn’t break your brain.”

“Yeah, uh, thanks. I’ll see you later, Abbie.”

Safiya left, walking in a daze back to her farm. Abbie’s revelation was a shocker to her. She hadn’t realized she was being so obvious, but if Sebastian liked her too and was as obvious as Abbie had said, how had she not noticed? How had he not noticed if she was being just as obvious?

When she reached her house, Safiya laid down on her porch, allowing her dog Adonis to come lay his head on her stomach. He looked at her as if to say, “I told you so.” Safiya smiled and patted Adonis on the head.

“Yeah, you did, buddy. I guess you did.”

* * *

 

Ever since Abbie’s revelation, Safiya had been going into the mines every day. She loved the mines; it was an easy way for her to earn some more money, and it was a very good way for her to de-stress thanks to all of the monsters she could eradicate. Safiya was bringing with her some food and would stop at Dwarf’s shop for a health potion every day, so she could spend as long as she could in the mine.

The progress she was making, combined with the monster eradication goals she was making progress with for the Adventurers’ Guild, was a good way for her to distract herself from the way her mind was going crazy with thoughts about what Abbie had told her. There were so many things for her to focus on in the mines that it stopped her from worrying about it all.

At least, it normally did. Safiya had managed to find three floors in a row with little ore of interest and no monsters. She didn’t know how she had gotten so lucky. Or rather, unlucky, considering why she was in the mines to begin with. Safiya wandered the cavern she was in, dragging her pickaxe behind her, and her thoughts began to wander to her conversation with Abbie.

Her heart began to race when she thought about how certain Abbie was that Sebastian liked her, too. She thought about how Abbie had said she was being obvious about her own feelings, and embarrassment overcame her. Safiya broke apart a few more rocks, only half paying attention in her search for the ladder down to the next floor, as she continued to think about her situation.

Still absorbed in her thoughts, Safiya climbed down the ladder to the next level when she found it. She didn’t even think about paying attention to what might be down there because of her track record with the previous few floors. When she turned around to look around the area of the floor, Safiya was surprised to see several monsters surrounding her and no sign of any ore anywhere. The floor was infested, and Safiya was completely unprepared, her sword strapped to her belt still.

Safiya scrambled to switch to her sword, the monsters surrounding her. She was immediately overwhelmed by the monsters as they began to jump her. Even swinging her sword wildly, she couldn’t kill enough to get them off her. Panic set in, and Safiya’s movements became even more frantic. She could feel pain all over her body, and it was just getting worse the longer she tried to fight them off. She had stepped too far from the ladder, and she was completely surrounded. A bat nosedived at her, clawing up one side of her face, and she screamed.

She couldn’t take the pain any more. She collapsed, her sword skittering a pace or two away and her backpack spilling open. As her eyes began to flutter closed, she saw the monsters scatter, and a pair of black shoes moved into her field of view.

She didn’t know how much later it was, but Safiya heard her name being called. She began to stir, and she heard someone begging her to wake up. When she opened her eyes, she saw Robin kneeling in front of her.

“Oh, thank Yoba. You really scared me, Safiya,” Robin said.

Safiya groaned and sat up, pressing a hand to her forehead. She felt awful, and she could tell her hair was half out of its usual bun. “What happened?”

“I heard your scream while I was looking for some iron to have Clint make me some more nails, and the next thing I know, I found you looking half dead in the middle of a ring of monsters. I got your tools for you, but I don’t know if I got all of the things that fell out of your backpack.”

“I don’t care about that. Just… Thank you for rescuing me.”

“Of course. Here, you’re looking pretty worse for wear. Let me help you out a bit. You can come relax in our house for a bit before you go home. Right now I don’t think it’d be safe for you to go all that way by yourself.”

“Oh, uh, thank you.”

Safiya allowed Robin to pick her up and support her shoulder, splitting the weight of her things between them. When they reached Robin’s home, they dumped everything in a corner of Robin’s shop. They moved to the kitchen, and Robin carefully guided Safiya into a cushioned chair. She left, returning a few moments later with a fluffy blanket and a first aid kit. Robin wrapped Safiya in the blanket and set the first aid kit on the table, turning to the stove to put on a kettle for some hot tea. A few minutes later, she placed a mug of fresh tea in Safiya’s hands.

Robin opened her mouth to ask something as she settled into the seat beside Safiya, but was interrupted by the front door of the house slamming open. “Mom?” Sebastian’s voice called.

“I’m in the kitchen, Sebby!” Robin replied. Within moments, Sebastian entered the kitchen, his eyes glued to his phone.

“Hey, have you heard-?” Sebastian began to ask, cutting himself off when he looked up and saw Safiya sitting there. “Oh, hey Saf.”

Safiya turned around in her chair to look at him. She heard him suck in a gasp at her appearance. She was absolutely certain at that point that she looked like an absolute mess. Sebastian rushed over, practically throwing himself into the other chair that was open beside her.

“Saf, what happened to you?” he asked, his concern practically dripping from his voice. He reached up and gently turned her face, looking at the scratches on her cheek.

“I, uh, wasn’t paying attention in an infested area in the mine.”

“You need to be more careful. Mom, I’ll take care of her. You can go back to your errands you were doing today,” Sebastian said, glancing up at Robin.

“Alright. Thank you, Sebby,” Robin replied.

Safiya looked up, catching the look Robin was giving Sebastian as she left. She couldn’t tell what it meant, though. When she looked back at Sebastian, she could see all the worry and concern written all over his face. She looked down, not wanting to see how much her state had upset him.

“Hey, it’s okay. You’re not seriously hurt, and that’s what’s important. You should definitely be more careful and pay more attention, but what’s important is that you’re okay.”

“Yeah, I… I just got lost in my thoughts. The last couple floors had been abandoned even by monsters, and I guess I just forgot they existed down there for a little bit.”

“They like to do that for some reason. Here, let me start cleaning that scratch. Luckily the rest of it seems to just be bruising, but I don’t know how deep it went. I guess we’ll see in the morning,” Sebastian said, reaching over to the first aid kit.

Sebastian put a cleaning agent on a piece of gauze and dabbed at her scratches. Safiya hissed.

“Sorry, sorry. We just have to be sure they won’t get infected. But it doesn’t look deep, so you should be fine before too long. Do you want a bandage?”

“No, it’s fine once it’s clean.”

Sebastian put down the gauze and placed a few fingers under her chin again, tilting her head a few angles to check out the rest of her face. He lifted the corner of the blanket to check what was visible of her arms and legs, carefully tucking it back into place when he was done.

“I’m pretty sure that’s all that’ll need cleaning, but it looks like those clothes might not be salvageable. How many slimes were there?”

“I don’t know. A lot. Also some bats, some shadow brutes, a couple metal heads… I think I saw a lava crab or two, too.”

“Yoba, you really need to be more careful. I don’t want to lose you. Here, let me get you something to eat. That might help you feel a little better.”

_Abbie was right, he’s not acting like he’s worried about someone he only thinks of as a friend,_ Safiya thought to herself as Sebastian got up. He stopped and looked at her, a slightly confused look on his face.

“What was that?”

Safiya jumped, bewildered. “Did I say something?”

“I didn’t hear it all. Something about Abbie?”

“O- Oh, Abbie was telling me I should practice more with my sword. I need to take her up on that, that’s all.”

Sebastian’s confusion melted from his face, and he gave her a small smile. “That sounds like a good idea. I know you love the mines, but you should be as prepared as possible for next time.”

Safiya set her near-empty mug on the table, burying her face in her hands. She couldn’t believe herself. She almost let slip her thoughts out loud, right in front of the person they were about! Biting back a groan, she looked up and watched Sebastian as he worked at the counter. A small smile made its way onto her face. He was so nice to her.

A few minutes later, Sebastian moved back to the table with a cup of soup and a sandwich for her. He handed it to her, urging her to at least have half of it. She quickly finished all of it, not having realized until then just how hungry she actually was. Sebastian laughed softly when she asked him to bring her one of the field snacks she had in her backpack.

Once she finished that, they sat together for a little while, talking softly as they waited for Safiya’s stomach to settle and digest. When she felt strong enough to walk on her own, Sebastian insisted upon walking her back. He tried to take her bag and tools from her, but she insisted, saying she needed to keep from getting used to his spoiling or she would never be able to do any of her chores on her own. Safiya waved goodbye to Robin, thanking her for the help.

During the walk back, Sebastian asked her about her adventures into the mines. How they normally went, how her progress was going, what she liked about going. She told him, glad that he was interested in one of her favorite parts of living in the valley.

“So, do you mind me asking what you were so deep in thought about down there that you didn’t notice the infestation?” Sebastian eventually asked.

“Uh, Abbie and I had a really long conversation the other day, and I’m still trying to work out some of the stuff she meant. I can’t really say more than that though. It’s kinda personal stuff.”

“Alright. You don’t have to tell me, but I’m all ears if you ever need to get something off your chest, okay?”

Safiya looked up at Sebastian – walking side by side with him like this always made her realize just how tall he was – and saw him smiling at her. She returned the smile, thanking him, and looked back down at the trail in front of her, shifting the backpack on her shoulder. It was starting to get too heavy for her, but they were almost there. Just a little while longer, and she could dump it all.

“Are you sure you don’t want to let me carry that for you?” Sebastian asked.

Safiya looked back up at him. “Uh, no, we’re almost there, and it’s pretty heavy,” she replied softly.

“Here, just let me take it. I know you prefer to do things on your own, but you were just out cold a little bit ago. It’s got to be heavy, even for you.”

Safiya was silent for a moment before relenting. She let the backpack slip of her shoulder with a thud. Sebastian bent down to pick it up, but she stopped him.

“Uh, you might want to lift with your legs. It’s really heavy.”

Sebastian lifted the bag, groaning and staggering a bit under the weight of it. “Yoba, you weren’t kidding. What is this, a bag of rocks?” Safiya gave him a pointed look. “Duh, of course it is. You were just in the mines. Sorry. Seriously though, if this wasn’t much for you, you must be ripped.”

Safiya chuckled, glancing at her arms. She definitely had gotten stronger since she moved here. “Well, I’m the only one on my farm. I do all the manual labor by myself. Except for the building construction, of course. I pay your mom for that.”

Sebastian laughed. “Yeah, I guess you’d have to be strong with that being your situation.”

When they reached the farm, Safiya had Sebastian drop her bag in front of her shipping box, so she could dump all the crystals she had found in. She tossed all the material stone into her storage box, reorganizing her bag so the geodes she needed to have Clint crack would be on top for when she was ready in the morning. Sebastian insisted upon carrying her bag inside for her, so she allowed him to follow her into her house.

Safiya sank onto her bed with a sigh. After putting her bag in the corner, Sebastian sat beside her, his fingers threaded together. “Will you be okay by yourself for the rest of the night, Saf?” he asked.

“Yeah. I’m just gonna take a quick shower and then get to bed. I’m feeling better, thanks to you and Robin, but I’m still exhausted. I’m going to need a lot of rest tonight if I’m going to be feeling okay enough to do my chores tomorrow morning.”

“Alright. Then, I guess I’ll head back. Let me know if you need anything, okay? I’ll tell Mom you’re feeling better, but she’ll want you to come prove it to her.”

“Okay, I will.”

Sebastian stood and headed for the door, with Safiya close behind. She got the door for him, but before he could go, she stopped him.

“Seb, you’re amazing, you know that?” When he chuckled and began to disagree, Safiya shook her head. “No, I’m serious. You really are amazing. Thank you, for everything.”

Before she lost the courage, Safiya stepped up onto the stool she kept near the door and went up on her toes, giving Sebastian a peck on the cheek. She smiled at him as she stepped down, clinging to the door to keep from melting over her boldness. Sebastian stared at her, wide-eyed, turning a brighter and brighter red with every passing second.

That was it. That was the look Abbie had described to her. Now, Safiya had seen it for herself. And Abbie was right. Safiya blushed and rubbed the back of her neck, smiling shyly.

“Um, thank you again, Seb. Good night,” she said, her voice small out of shyness.

“Yeah, uh… Good night, Saf,” Sebastian replied, dazed.

As Safiya slowly shut the door, Sebastian turned away, pressing a hand to his cheek. Safiya pressed her own hands to her flaming cheeks, leaning against the wall and sinking to the floor. She couldn’t believe she had done that! It hadn’t been her intention to test what Abbie had been telling her, but at least now she knew she had been right.

Oh, Yoba, Safiya needed to talk to Abbie right that second.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have I mentioned yet that Safiya is supposed to be half Arabic? She got her mom's pale skin tone but her dad's features. Also I like to headcanon Sebastian as being Asian, Filipino to be exact. I dunno, it just seems to fit him (plus there's not a lot of diversity in Stardew Valley and we also don't know what his birth dad looks like).
> 
> As always, thank you guys so much, and if you have any ideas or encouragement or anything I'd love to hear it! :D!


	6. Sebastian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian finally admits out loud that he has a crush on Safiya.

Sebastian was sitting at the table in his room, laying out cards and chatting with Sam in the seat beside him. They were about to play Solarion Chronicles. He had just gotten his hands on a new expansion pack, and he wanted to test out the new cards. Just as he finished sorting the cards, someone knocked on his door and came into the room. When he looked up, Sebastian realized it was Safiya standing there.

“Hey, Saf. Sam and I were just about to play Solarion Chronicles. Why don’t you join us? It’s better with three people,” he said, waving her over.

“Sure. I was wondering when I’d get to try this one out,” she replied, settling herself into the chair across from Sebastian.

“Okay, here we go. Let me draw the scenario card. Hm. It looks like today’s quest will take us into the Necromancer’s Tower to try and reclaim the Solarion Staff from the clutches of Dreadlord Xarth.”

“Cool. Safiya, are you ready to choose your character?” Sam asked. “You can choose between warrior, wizard, or healer.”

Safiya thought for a moment. “Healer. I like to help people, even if playing a support character sucks sometimes.”

“Yeah? It’s still a very important role. I guess I’ll pick the wizard, then,” Sebastian replied.

“Cool, warrior’s my favorite anyway,” Sam said, reaching over for his character card.

“Alright, let’s get started.”

_The King has entrusted you and your companions with recovering the Solarion Staff, a task which, if completed successfully, will ensure your place in the hall of legends as well as a sizable fortune of gold and silver. After a long month journeying across unforgiving lands, you step out onto a precipice to see your destination looming in the distance. There, beyond a moonlit plain, lies the Necromancer’s Tower, where Dreadlord Xarth usurps the power of the stolen Solarion Staff for his vile purposes. The tower lies before you._

“Okay, so, should we go in the front or look around for a hidden entrance?” Sebastian asked, glancing between Sam and Safiya.

“The front! It’ll be way more cool to barge in the front!” Sam said.

“Safiya?” Sebastian asked.

Safiya hummed in thought. “There might be a bunch of traps in the front, but a secret entrance is sure to have even more. I agree, let’s go through the front.”

"Okay. Lead the way," Sebastian replied.

_A skeleton guards the hallway before you. It looks dangerous. What do you do?_

“Safiya, since you led the way in, you have to fight it. What do you want to do?” Sebastian asked.

“I’ll fight it.”

“Ooh, no hesitation! Nice!” Sam cried.

_The skeleton lunges forward!_

“I raise my shields!” Safiya cried.

_You successfully block the attack. The skeleton stumbles backward, giving you enough time to strike out and slay the foul creature. You continue down the hallway, taking care not to step on the skeleton’s remains._

“That was awesome, Safiya!” Sam cheered. Safiya grinned.

“Yeah, you handled that well. You ready to keep going?” Sebastian asked. Safiya nodded.

_You find yourself in a sewer-like corridor. To your left, a hallway glows with a peculiar green light. To your right, a staircase leads up into the dark. What do you do?_

“Let’s go through the hallway. I want to know what that light is,” Safiya said.

“Me too, that sounds too weird to ignore,” Sam said.

“I agree. Let’s go,” Sebastian replied.

_You are in a room. On your left is a ladder. On your right, three prisoners are floating in strange, glowing capsules. They appear to be in the process of some kind of transformation. Could this be some sick experiment of the Dreadlord’s? What do you do?_

“Of course we should destroy the capsules. We need to save those poor things from whatever horrible fate they’ve been handed,” Safiya immediately stated.

“I agree. Sam?”

Sam nodded, and he made his character destroy the capsules.

_After putting these poor souls to rest, you and your companions climb the ladder. You’ve come to a door at the end of a hallway. The time has come to face Dreadlord Xarth._

_Xarth: Intruders? How dare you trespass in my private chambers! Ah, so you’ve come for the Solarion Staff. Heheheh… Fools. You’ll make a nice addition to my skeleton army!_

_Dreadlord Xarth casts shadow beam! Safiya was able to dodge the spell, but her companions are gravely injured! What do you do?_

Safiya hesitated. “I’m sorry, Sam, but I don’t think it’s safe to approach him headlong. Who knows what he’s got up his sleeve. I’ll heal Sebastian.”

“Thanks, Safiya.” Sam was silent, and Sebastian could see that Safiya felt bad for not being able to include Sam too. But they were almost there, so hopefully winning would cheer him up. She quickly healed his character.

_Sebastian casts “Pure Bolt.” A beam of white light hits Xarth square in the face. The Dreadlord shrieks and crumbles into dust. You pick up the Solarion Staff and hold it high. Order has been restored to the world. You finished the scenario with an A rating._

“Hey, not bad, Saf! It took me, like, three or four tries to beat my first scenario,” Sebastian said.

Safiya smiled. “I’m glad I got the hang of this quickly! That was fun! But I should get going now, I was just dropping off an order for Robin and thought I’d poke my head in.”

“Yeah, it was fun. Thanks for stopping by. I’ll see you later!”

Safiya got up and left, waving as she shut the door behind her. Sebastian watched the door until he couldn’t hear her footsteps on the stairs any more before he began cleaning up the mess from the game they had just played.

“Does Safiya just poke her head in like that a lot?” Sam asked.

“Most days, yeah. She goes to the mine a lot, so she comes in to say hi to my family and then stops at Linus’ tent before going in. And she orders a lot of furniture and buildings from my mom.”

“And you guys have talked about playing this game together before?”

“Yeah, she’s actually a pretty big gamer herself. Not as much any more since she doesn’t have the time, but she has a pretty impressive collection. She’s more into video games than tabletops, though. She has one that I know of, and we played it together when she got it. That’s when we talked about playing this at some point.”

“Oh, okay. I was just curious. Anyway, you up for a two person round now?”

“Sure. Let me just set back up again.”

* * *

 

It was Sam’s birthday, and thanks to the rain, he had been able to get the day off his usual shift at Joja Mart. So, Sebastian had been spending the day with his best friend, taking advantage of the surprise day off. Sam didn’t really celebrate much, just a nice dinner with his family later in the evening, so that was all he had wanted to do.

They were sitting in Sam’s bedroom, playing a game on his computer together, when a soft knock sounded at the door. Sam called out for the person to come in, and out of the corner of his eye, Sebastian saw Safiya enter the room. She stood off to the side, quietly watching their match, until they finished. They turned to face her, and she smiled at them.

Safiya had healed well from her incident in the mines about a week ago. Her scratches had healed up well, and while her legs had been black and blue for a while, the bruises were finally fading to green. She hadn’t been back to the mines yet, but she had told Sebastian that she wasn’t afraid but rather was waiting to heal completely to go back.

“Hey, guys. I hope I’m not interrupting?”

“Nah, you’re good!” Sam said. “What’s up?”

“Well, I heard it was your birthday, Sam, so I brought you something,” Safiya replied.

“Seriously? That’s so nice!” Safiya moved closer and handed Sam a can of Joja Cola. “Dude, thank you! I love this stuff! How did you know?

Safiya shrugged. “I’m pretty good at guessing what people like. Plus, I noticed you always drink like six cans on saloon nights, so I assumed you at least liked it.”

“You know, now that I think about it, you always manage to find something good for someone’s birthday,” Sebastian said.

Safiya shrugged again. “I guess I just notice what sort of stuff people like. Well, anyway, I’ll let you guys get back to it. I need to go catch a couple sardines for Willy.”

“See you later, Saf.”

“Bye, Safiya. Thanks again!”

Safiya left, smiling and waving at them. Sam cracked open the soda and knocked it back, quickly draining the can. He wiped his mouth and smiled, crushing the can between his hands before setting it aside to be recycled later. Sebastian began to reach for his controller again when Sam moved to sit on the foot of the bed. He turned in his chair to look at his friend, slightly confused on why he had abandoned the game when he had been so excited to finally get to try the multiplayer maps.

“So, Safiya’s pretty cool, huh?”

Sebastian gave Sam a weird look. “Uh, yeah, she is.”

“What do you think about her?”

“She’s pretty cool.”

Sam sighed and shook his head. “Come on, I know you think more than that! What do you think about her?”

“I’m not sure what you mean, Sam.”

“Sebastian, basically everyone in town’s seen how you look at her. We all know. I just want to hear you say it yourself.”

Sebastian looked at Sam, hoping he had managed to keep his face a mask of calm. “I really don’t know what you mean.”

Sam sighed. “I didn’t want to sound all accusatory or whatever, but if you’re forcing me, I will. Basically everyone knows you like Safiya, Sebastian.”

Sebastian froze. “What do you mean, everyone knows?”

“You’re not as subtle as you think you are, dude.”

“Oh, Yoba, does she know?”

“Not unless Abbie already got to her. She’s so oblivious, I dunno how she could have missed it. You’ve practically been waving a big red flag the whole time.”

“What do you mean, Abbie got to her?”

“Abbie got tired of seeing you guys tiptoe around each other, so she said she was going to try to talk to Safiya about the two of you. She won’t tell me if she has yet or not, though.”

“Wait, why does Abbie want to talk to Safiya about this? Oh, Yoba, has she noticed?” Sebastian was starting to panic. He didn’t know what he would do if Safiya knew, especially if she didn’t like him back!

“Hey, calm down, Sebastian. It’s okay. Safiya hasn’t noticed. Like I said, she’s super oblivious. But you are too.”

“I am?”

“Yoba, Sebastian, she’s as bad as you are! Everyone can see she likes you too.”

“She does?”

Sam let out a long, exasperated groan. “Yes, she does! Yoba, I think I get how you feel when you’re telling me this stuff.”

“Wow, I… Wow.”

Sam smiled. “I know. I get it. Listen, how about instead of you panicking, why don’t you just tell me about what it is you like so much about her? I want all the details!”

Sebastian laughed. “You sound like Haley or something now.”

“Hey, I just want to know what’s up in my best friend’s head! Now tell me, I’m all ears.”

“Well… She’s amazingly sweet, even when I was kinda rude to her in the beginning. And she seems to pick up on when I needed space, which is a big deal to me. We have a lot of the same interests, so she’s really easy to talk to, and she’s really funny even if she isn’t trying to be. She’s so pretty too, gorgeous actually. I dunno, Sam. All of that just feels so superficial. I guess the best thing I can say aside from all that is she doesn’t make me feel weird for all the social anxiety issues I have, and she doesn’t trigger them, either. And that’s huge for me.”

“Wow, you really have it bad for her.”

Sebastian rested his chin in the palm of his hand. “I know. I’m screwed if she doesn’t feel the same way for me. I’ve never felt like this about anyone before.”

“Trust me, she likes you too. She’s always giving you these puppy dog eyes. The same ones you're always giving her, actually.”

“That’s… Really good to know, actually. I was actually so nervous about it, I don’t think I would have done anything otherwise. And wait, I don't give her puppy dog eyes!”

"Yeah, you do, dude."

"Fine, whatever you say."

"You're sure you haven't noticed anything that could possibly be a hint that she likes you too?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. Oh, um, but there was the time..."

"The time...?" Sam prompted, leaning forward.

"You know how she got hurt in the mines recently?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, Mom rescued her, and then I helped Safiya by, like, cleaning the scratches she had on her face and giving her some food so she wouldn't collapse again. And after I helped her to her house, she kissed me on the cheek."

"Dude, holy shit! How could you doubt she likes you after that?!"

"I don't know! I don't know how she is with people other than you, Abbie, and my family! And she had just been out cold, so I thought maybe it could be she was still a little delirious or something..."

Sam gave him a withering look. Sebastian quickly jumped on the defensive.

"I don't know! Don't look at me like that!"

"Dude, she definitely likes you. I don't know how you could doubt that after that. I don't know if you've noticed, but she doesn't give anyone any sort of physical affection like that unless they start it first. Like, how Abbie's always hugging her, but Safiya never does first."

Sebastian shrugged. "I dunno, I never really paid attention to that. I was more interested in, you know, hearing what she says and seeing what she does with me."

Sam snickered. “You so have it bad for her. Wait, so I have a question. Safiya’s like, super buff. I’ve seen her carry a tree trunk by herself.”

“Yeah, and?”

“You have no problems with her almost definitely being strong enough to lift you up and carry you when you’re practically twice her size? She’s so tiny, like a foot shorter than you, and she’d probably have no problem picking you up and carrying you around.”

Sebastian looked straight into Sam’s eyes. “Sam, she could break me in half and I’d say thank you.”

Sam burst out laughing. “Wow, okay, then I guess it’s no big deal to you!”

“She’s gorgeous, with or without being strong like that.”

“Well, so why don’t you tell her?”

“I can’t do that!”

“Well, why not?”

“I… I just can’t.”

“I promise, she likes you too. If you were to purposely flirt with her, she’d either get super flustered because she likes you, and I’m sure you’d think that’s cute, or she’ll dish it right back, which confirms to your face that she likes you too and you have more than just me telling you. And if she does dish it back, you’ll probably get flustered, which she’d probably find cute and be even more into you.”

“I guess that’s true…”

“Then, how about this. Next time you see her, if you’re comfortable enough to try it, why don’t you just give it a shot? Even if it’s horribly bad, she’ll probably still respond positively.”

“I guess I can at least try…”

“There you go! Now, anyway, I’ll stop embarrassing you. Why don’t we get back to the game?” Sam asked, moving back to his seat at the desk.

* * *

 

 

When Sebastian woke up the next day, he found himself unable to move from bed. Not because of an anxiety attack like usual, though, but rather out of nerves about what he had promised Sam he would do that day. If he got up, he was likely to see Safiya, and then he’d have to try being forward about his feelings for her. And while he wanted to see where that would go, he also was afraid of what the possible results could be.

Sebastian ended up staying in bed so long that the next thing he knew, it was noon and he was hearing activity upstairs that didn’t sound like his family. He wasn’t sure if maybe Maru had someone visiting, or if it was something else. He decided to stay in bed and wait it out before finally getting up to get some food.

A soft knock sounded at Sebastian’s door, startling him. He sat up and called out for whoever it was to come in. The door slowly swung open, and standing in his doorway was Safiya.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I wake you up?” she asked, edging toward the door again. “Your mom finished upgrading my house and I have a kitchen now, so I wanted to share some of the first food I’ve cooked here.”

“No, you’re fine. Come in,” Sebastian replied, gesturing at the chair near his desk. Safiya moved toward it and settled herself in it, crossing her legs. _Now or never, Sebastian. If you don’t do it now, you never will._

“How come you’re still in bed so late?”

“I kept having this weird dream and then waking up from it. So I figured I’d stay in bed for a bit longer to see if I could catch up on the sleep I lost last night,” Sebastian replied. _Can I make this go anywhere? I have no idea what I could say._

“Oh, really? That sucks. What was the dream about?” Safiya asked.

“I dunno. I don’t remember. What I do remember is that you were the first thing I thought about when I woke up,” Sebastian replied.  _HOLY SHIT WHAT AM I SAYING._

He watched as her face turned a million shades of red. “I- I was?” she asked, a smile slowly growing on her face.  _Oh thank Yoba, this seems to be going okay so far..._

“Yeah, you were.”

Safiya giggled. “Well, I think that was the ASCII* to my heart.”

Sebastian stared at her blankly for a second. What did coding have to do with that? He thought for a moment, and when he realized what she did, it was his turn to blush.

“That was pretty smooth there, Saf,” he said, laughing.

“You’re pretty smooth yourself, Seb,” Safiya replied, giggling. “Well, I’ll let you get back to resting. I’ll, uh, just leave some of the food for you.”

“See you later, Saf.”

“Bye, Seb!”

Once Safiya was gone, Sebastian flopped back onto his pillow and pressed his hands to his still-hot face. Well, Sam had been right. About all of it. He glanced over and noticed she had left sashimi, one of his favorite foods. He smiled. Somehow she always knew what everyone liked, even someone as weird as Sam, who liked that nasty Joja Cola.

Sam.

Sebastian needed to text Sam right that second and figure out what the FUCK to do next.

**To: Sam**

**sam what the FUCK oh my god what did i just do?????**

**From: Sam**

**dude did u die what happened?**

**To: Sam**

**i followed your advice and hOLY SHIT**

**From: Sam**

**ok wait tell me everything i need u to give me all the deets b4 i can help**

**To: Sam**

**fuck okay this is what happened**

Sebastian began typing, his message becoming more and more book-like the more he explained. He hoped Sam would be able to help.

* * *

 

It was raining, and that meant a trip to the pier.

Sebastian loved watching the ocean in the rain. The rain made it better somehow. He didn’t know how exactly, but it just did. And that was why he was going to go watch the rain over the ocean again, just like he did almost every other time it rained.

He stood there, hands in his pockets, for at least twenty minutes by himself. Sebastian didn’t notice – or rather, didn’t care – how wet he was getting. He hadn’t even seen Willy standing at the other end of the pier, still fishing even in the rain. Maybe he was going to take the day to relax for once. His thoughts wandered back to Sam's messages from the other day, the ones about what happened after Sebastian took his advice and tried flirting with Safiya. Sam had confirmed once again that, yes, Safiya definitely did like him, and that he thought he should ask her out. Sure, Sebastian would love that - if it wasn't for the fact that he was a giant wimp and was too afraid to, even with all that confirmation staring him in the face.

Sebastian heard a sound behind him and turned to see none other than Safiya standing there, getting just as drenched as he was.

“Saf? Hey, I’m surprised to see you out here in the rain,” he said, watching as she moved closer.

“Just like the first time we ran into each other out here, huh?”

“Heh, yeah, I guess so.”

“At least I didn’t startle you this time,” Safiya said.

“I was never mad at you about that, you know.”

“That’s good to know.”

They stood silently for a few moments, Safiya moving to stand beside him. “Look at those dark clouds looming over the horizon,” Sebastian eventually pointed out.

Safiya followed his gaze. “Looks like they’re headed this direction.”

“I hope they come this way.”

They were silent for a few moments again. Sebastian saw Safiya look at him out of the corner of his eye. He took a deep breath. Now was as good a time as any to open up about some of the stuff he went through, he supposed.

“I like this weather because it makes everyone disappear, you know? Being around people makes me feel so anxious… I don’t feel that way around you, though,” he said, turning to look at her for a moment. She turned to him and smiled.

They turned back to the water and watched it for a bit longer. Sebastian was starting to feel a bit awkward, having just laid himself out there for her. But she hadn’t said anything bad, so he supposed that was a good thing. Just then, the rain started to come down harder, and he noticed he was getting drenched through to his shirt under his sweatshirt. Safiya didn't even have a sweatshirt to cover her some more, so her t-shirt was close to thoroughly drenched.

“We’re getting soaked…” he said. He reached down for the umbrella beside him and opened it, shielding himself from the rain. “Here. There’s room for two.”

Safiya looked at him, probably examining him to make sure she wouldn’t actually be encroaching in his personal space if she took him up on his offer. A moment later, she relented and edged closer beside him. He shifted the umbrella so he was holding it between them, giving them both the most protection possible. Being that close to her was making him so, so nervous. What if he did something to embarrass himself? He wanted to keep things going the way they were. He liked the direction things were headed.

A moment later, Sebastian felt a hand hesitantly touch the back of his arm. He looked down and saw Safiya smiling up at him, her hand resting gently on the back of his arm. She looked away, shifting her hand so it was resting in the crook of his elbow, partly arm in arm with him. Sebastian smiled, and he looked back at the water to keep watching it in peace with the girl he liked by his side.

Yeah, he could get used to this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter's quite a bit shorter than most of the rest have been, but a lot happens!
> 
> *ASCII is pronounced ass-key, in case you're not familiar with coding! I definitely am not, I was provided this joke by my amazing best friend/roommate after they read what I had when I was complaining about having no idea what in the world Saf should say in response to Seb's blatant (yet bad) flirting. I had to have it explained to me because they just showed me the joke online instead of telling me because they couldn't remember the whole thing and I was just all... A-S-C-2? What? //insert that one awkward smiling emoji
> 
> By the way, when I was writing Seb's freaking out texts to Sam, all that was running through my head was that video of JonTron screaming "I Will Always Love You". Specifically the first half of that video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa8NREI_IPs ), not the part where he starts going like "I can't believe you'd do this to me" but the stuff before that. I don't even really watch JonTron, I'm more a fan of Markiplier and Cryaotic, but that clip is HILARIOUS and I love it!
> 
> As always, thank you guys so much for your support, and if you have any ideas/recommendations/encouragement I'd love to hear it! You guys are the best :D!!


	7. Sebastian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian is caught completely by surprise. But, for once, it’s not a bad surprise.

For what felt like ages after the night at the pier, Sebastian barely saw Safiya. Sure, they continued to text all the time, but he missed seeing her for more than her poking her head in to say hi on her way to the mines. He knew she was insanely busy. She was running a farm entirely by herself, including a bunch of animals, and she was still trying to earn enough money to upgrade her house and farm more. He just missed spending more time with her.

But luckily, it was finally the day of the Dance of the Moonlight Jellies. They had been talking for ages about going and spending some time together during that festival for a while. Safiya was excited to experience the festival for the first time, and Sebastian was excited to get to see her again.

For the past week or so, Sebastian had been working up the courage to ask Safiya out. Sam had tried to push him to immediately after the whole flirting event, but he had decided not to. He was still nervous that it was all just a fluke and that she didn’t actually like him.

Well, that and the fact that he hadn’t seen her for a while.

Sebastian lay on his couch, thinking about what to do about asking her out. He knew he wanted to, but he didn’t know if he could work up the courage by that night. Eventually, he decided he would do it in a week. By then, he would surely have been able to work up enough courage to ask her out. He would just have to go get a bouquet for her, and hope she wouldn’t find out before he could get it to her.

After a few more hours of just lying on his couch, not doing much of anything, Sebastian heard a soft knock at his door before it opened and shut behind whoever it was. He looked over and saw Safiya moving toward him, giving him a small, shy smile. She was hiding her hands behind her back. Sebastian sat up, taking his feet off the couch so she could sit beside him. Safiya took a weird route around him, always keeping her back away from him.

“Is something wrong, Saf?” he asked.

“Yeah, everything’s fine. I just have a surprise for you,” she said, shifting nervously in her seat and giving him another shy smile.

Sebastian glanced at her hands, hidden behind her. “What is it? Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, um, just give me a minute.” They sat in silence for a few minutes, the tension thick enough that Sebastian could have cut it. She wasn’t meeting his eyes. Safiya took a deep breath. “Okay, um, well… I’m sure you must have found out by now, but I, um, really like you, and uh… Well, here.”

Safiya moved her hands out from behind her back, procuring none other than a bouquet. And she was handing it to him.

Safiya was asking him out.

Sebastian gingerly accepted the flowers, looking at her with wide eyes. “Holy shit,” he whispered, feeling his face and ears heat up.

“What?” Safiya asked, nerves evident in her tone.

“I- I was going to ask you out soon myself. I’ve, uh, been trying to work up the courage.”

Safiya grinned, blushing herself, and took the bouquet from Sebastian. After placing the bouquet carefully onto the table, she pulled him into a tight hug, and he gripped the back of her shirt tightly, pulling her as close as he could. He was practically dragging her into his lap, he was pulling her so close. She reached up, cradling the back of his head, and let out a choked laugh.

Sebastian pulled back to look her in the eyes when he heard that. She was tearing up, but she was still smiling. He reached up and wiped away her tears, smiling at her. “Is everything okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, this is perfect. I, um, was just thinking about how happy I am.”

Sebastian smiled. “Me, too.”

They sat curled up together for a while, enjoying each other’s presence. Safiya eventually glanced at the clock and sighed, leaning her head against Sebastian’s.

“I don’t want to, but I have to go. I promised Lewis I’d go take care of some things in the mines for him today before the festival…”

“Oh. It’s okay, I understand. We’ll see each other there. Will you be okay in the mines again?”

“Yeah, I’ll be okay. I promise I’ll come find you,” Safiya replied. She got up, leaning down again to hug him and press a quick kiss to his forehead. When she straightened again, her face was bright red, and Sebastian could feel himself blushing.

“I’ll, um, I’ll see you later, Saf,” he said, smiling at her.

Safiya gave him a dazzling smile in response. “When the flowers start to wilt, let me know. I know of a way to preserve them well. It’ll fit with your whole emo aesthetic,” she teased.

“Hey, I’m not emo!” he protested.

Safiya giggled. “Alright, whatever you say. Bye, Seb.”

“Bye, Saf.”

Sebastian smiled and waved at her as she left. Once the door was shut again, he let out a long, content sigh and flopped back on his couch again. He pinched himself, hard. It wasn’t a dream. That had really happened. He and Safiya were a couple now. Sebastian pressed his hands over his face, grinning.

It was going to be a long afternoon until the festival.

* * *

 

It was getting late, and Sebastian was getting worried. Normally, Safiya would have been there already, but she was already coming up on half an hour late. Sebastian pulled out his phone and opened a new message to Safiya, but just as he began typing, a new message arrived from her.

**From: Saf**

**Hey I’m so sorry I’m so late omg!! I left the mines early enough to get there on time but then I realized I had to change because I was covered in nasty slime;; on my way, I’ll be there in like 20 minutes max!!**

Sebastian smiled and erased what he had started to write. She would forget about something like that. At least she noticed before she got all the way here.

**To: Saf**

**that’s okay! i’ll tell lewis you’re running late and save you a spot on the pier**

**From: Saf**

**Thanks babe!!! <3**

**From: Saf**

**Was that too soon oh my god please ignore me I’m so sorry;;;**

**To: Saf**

**No it’s okay don’t worry! It’s not a problem babe ;)**

**From: Saf**

**!!!!!!!!!!!;;;;;;;;;;**

Sebastian was thankful it was so dark that it would hide his blushing. There was no hiding his stupid grin, though. He stood in his place for a moment, willing his blush to go away, before he went to find Lewis.

“Oh, hello, Sebastian. Did you need something?” Lewis asked as he approached the older man.

“Safiya just texted me, she said she’s on the way. She said she was on the way from the mines after doing a job you asked her to do, but then she realized she was covered in slime and had to go change,” Sebastian said.

“Thank you for the update. I was wondering where she was. I owe her some money for that, but I didn’t bring her reward with me. I’ll just get it to her in the morning. I suppose I should give her a bonus for the cleaning costs… Well, anyway, thank you for letting me know!” Lewis said, smiling.

Sebastian gave him a small smile and went back to his spot on the pier, propping up his legs in the space beside him to save a spot for Safiya. He reread his short conversation with Safiya, turning down the brightness of his phone’s screen, and smiled. He could still barely believe the events of the day, but this was written proof.

“Hey.”

Sebastian jumped and looked up. Safiya was standing beside him, leaning down to be closer to his level and smiling. He smiled and moved his legs, patting the spot beside him. She settled beside him and let out a long sigh, melting against his side.

“Hey. How did it go?” Sebastian asked, gently nudging her.

“It went fine,” Safiya replied, nudging him back. “Lewis wanted me to get rid of some slimes in the lower levels. It took me a while to get through it because for once it took me ages to find any. Normally I can find a million slimes on every level, but it took me so long and then I would get swarmed by random ones that would just come around blind corners. It wasn’t as bad as the infestation, but it was enough to cover my clothes in slime.”

“As long as it wasn’t as bad as the infestation. That was really scary to see, you know, especially after not hearing much from you for a while.”

“I’m so sorry about that. Abbie had just told me that you liked me after getting it out of me that I liked you, and I, um, kinda panicked. That’s why I was going into the mines so much all day every day, it was taking my mind off things,” Safiya explained. He could feel her face warming up on his shoulder.

“It’s okay. I understand. Just please try not to scare me like that again.”

“Of course.”

Safiya sat up and glanced behind them. Seeming satisfied with whatever she was looking for, she looked back and placed her hand over his where he had been resting it on his thigh. He turned his hand over, gently squeezing her fingers.

“Hey, guys!”

Safiya tore her hand from Sebastian’s, her cheeks flushing pink. Sebastian looked at her a moment before turning around. Sam and Abbie were walking toward them, waving, with Penny beside Sam. Out of the corner of his eye, Sebastian saw Safiya turn to look, her cheeks no longer flushed.

“Hey. What’s up, guys?” Safiya asked.

“Just waiting like everyone else,” Abbie said.

“I think Lewis was looking for you, Safiya,” Penny added.

“Really? What did he need?”

“Something about making sure you were here or something like that,” Penny replied.

“Okay, thank you. I’ll go talk to him.”

Safiya stood up, discretely tapping his hand as she did. Sebastian watched her walk around to the other side of the pier and talk to Lewis. He turned away to talk to Sam, Penny, and Abbie. A few moments later, he felt his phone vibrate. He turned to check it, and saw it was a text from Safiya asking him to join her on the other side of the pier.

“Hey, guys, my mom wants me to go watch the jellyfish with the family. I’ll see you later, okay?” he said.

The other three glanced up to say goodbye, but quickly returned to their conversation. He had barely been paying attention to it anyway, though. Sebastian made his way to Safiya, his hands shoved in his jacket pocket. She had managed to get an isolated place on the pier for the two of them.

“Hey, how’d you get away without a word?” she asked.

“I told them Mom wanted me.”

“Ooh, good call.”

“Yeah, I like to think I’m good at thinking on the fly.”

“Well, Lewis is about to send out the signal. Are you ready?”

“Are you ready? This is your first moonlight jelly festival,” Sebastian said.

“I think I am,” she replied.

Just then, Lewis announced that he was sending out the signal. They turned to look, watching as the signal floated out to sea. A few moments later, soft glows flickered in and out of view past the signal. Slowly, they drifted closer and closer until the soft glow of the bioluminescent jellyfish was constant and they could make out individual jellyfish. Safiya let out a soft gasp, watching rapt as a few drifted closer to where they were standing.

Sebastian turned to look at her. She was beautiful. He felt so, incredibly lucky that things had aligned in just the right way for her to like him too. He glanced down at her hand, hanging beside her, and slowly reached out to brush his fingers on the back of her hand. After a moment, she wove her fingers in with his. He looked back to her face, smiling, but she refused to look at him. Her cheeks were turning pink again, he noticed. Sebastian began rubbing circles on her knuckle with his thumb, hoping it was soothing. Finally, she glanced over at him, still blushing but at least smiling this time.

This was definitely the best Dance of the Moonlight Jellies he’d ever had.

* * *

 

**From: Saf**

**Hey are you free on Saturday?**

**To: Saf**

**yeah i am. what’s up?**

**From: Saf**

**Well, um, it’s my birthday on Saturday and I wanted to spend it with you…**

**To: Saf**

**wait your birthday is in six days???**

**From: Saf**

**Yeah, it is. Can you spend some time with me?**

**To: Saf**

**of course i can!**

**From: Saf**

**Yay! I’m excited!! :D**

**To: Saf**

**i am too :D**

But inside, Sebastian was panicking. He berated himself for not finding out when her birthday was sooner. She knew when his was already, and it was still several months away. But hers was less than a week away, and he hadn’t known? Stupid.

He didn’t even know what he could possibly get her. It was too soon to order her anything; it always took ages for any packages to get all the way out here to Pelican Town. He would have to figure out something he could find around town, and quickly. He wanted it to be special since it was both her first birthday here and her first birthday they would be spending together. They had only been a couple for a few days, too, so he was hoping he could impress her. But he didn’t know what sort of thing he could possibly find around town that she would like. It was time to call in the troops, so to speak.

He had to just start asking around.

“Mom!” he called, running up the stairs.

“What is it, Sebby? You startled me!” she replied, calling from her shop space. He quickly walked over to her.

“Sorry. I just found out that Saf’s birthday is on Saturday, but I have no idea what to get her. Has she mentioned anything she likes to you?” he asked.

Mom’s face changed from startled to amused. “You two are getting pretty close, huh?”

Sebastian felt his face warming up, but he nodded. “Don’t flip, but she, um, asked me out on the day of the moonlight jelly festival. She beat me to it,” he explained.

Mom grinned. “I’m so happy for you two! I could tell it was going to happen eventually. Now, she hasn’t mentioned much to me, but she did say the cord of her necklace is starting to fall apart. You know, that little blue stone she always wears? Maybe you could find something to replace it with.”

“Thanks, Mom, that’s really helpful!”

Sebastian went back down to his room, looking up necklaces similar to hers on his phone. But they wouldn’t get here in time if he were to order one. He dug through his desk drawer and came up with an old pendant-less chain and a small spool of wire. Maybe if he could find out what type of stone she liked, he could make something for her? There had to be instructions on something like that online.

**To: Abbie**

**hey uh weird question but do you happen to know what kind of crystals saf likes?**

**From: Abbie**

**She told me she really likes amethyst. Why, what’s up?**

**To: Abbie**

**it’s her birthday on saturday but if i try to order something it won’t get here fast enough. i thought i’d see if there was something around here i could get for her, maybe dig out my mom’s pickaxe since she likes the mines so much**

**From: Abbie**

**Good idea! She’d like that! Oh and thanks for letting me know her birthday is soon, I need to find something too!**

**To: Abbie**

**yeah of course. thanks abbie!**

Sebastian got on his computer, searching for instructions on how to wire wrap a crystal into a pendant. When he found one that had instructions simple enough for him but resulted in what he thought would make a pretty necklace for Safiya, he saved the URL and dug out a pair of pliers and some wire cutters to work with. He went back upstairs and, after double checking his mom wouldn’t need it, dug out her pickaxe and a large mallet from the depths of the garage and made his way toward the mines. He knew amethyst could be found in the higher levels, so he just went down the ladder rather than bothering with the elevator.

After a few levels, Sebastian really understood why Safiya loved the mines so much. Sure, he knew that destroying some monsters would be really satisfying. But there was something about just hunting through various nodes for gemstones and further ways down was just relaxing. It sounded weird to call hard labor relaxing, but it just was.

Once he reached the sixth level, Sebastian finally caught sight of an amethyst node. He would have to make his way through a maze of stones and a few monsters, but he had found one. The monsters were surprisingly easy, but having to force his way through the stones to get across the cavern was surprisingly tiring. Sebastian understood exactly how Safiya had managed to get so strong so quickly, what with how she was constantly down here in the mines.

At the thought of Safiya, Sebastian momentarily panicked, thinking she would find him down there. In one of her texts from earlier that day, she had said she was going into the mines to try to find some more gold ore. A moment later, though, he remembered she mostly stuck to the lower levels now. She had told him that the monsters up here were too easy for her now, and that she found better gems on the lower levels. If she was there, she wouldn’t run into him this high up.

Finally, Sebastian reached the amethyst he had spotted. In just a few quick strikes with the pickaxe, he had a handful of amethyst chips. He scooped them up and put them in his pocket, deciding he should pick which one later when he had better light. Once he reached the ladder up to the first floor on his way out, he cautiously peeked over the edge of the hole. Seeing no sign of Safiya, he quickly pulled himself up and ran back to his house. After putting away the tools, he made his way back into the house.

Before he went down to his room, Sebastian sent a quick text to Safiya, telling her he had to help his mom with something and that he wouldn’t be able to see her that night. He explained to his mom, asking her to cover for him if Safiya came by before seeing the text, and went down to his desk. Dumping the crystals onto his desk, he pawed through the collection until he found one that he thought would look best. It was one of the larger pieces, and it had formed into a vaguely teardrop-like shape. It was a deep, vibrant purple in the center and faded to a lighter shade on the outside.

It took him about three hours and as many tries, but Sebastian finally managed to make the stone into a nice little pendant. He threaded it onto the chain and held it up to the light, smiling to himself. Sebastian went upstairs to find his mom, hoping she would think it was a good gift. When he found her in the kitchen, he simply held up the necklace.

“Oh, Sebby, you made this?”

“Yeah, for Saf’s birthday. Do you think she’ll like it?”

“She’ll love it. You did an amazing job, sweetie.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

When Saturday finally rolled around, Sebastian walked to Safiya’s house at the agreed time. He had carefully wrapped the necklace in a small box, and now that he was waiting for Safiya to come to the door and let him in, he was getting so nervous he kept worrying a loose spot in the wrapping paper. Finally, Safiya opened the door to him, grinning.

“Seb! I’m so happy to see you! I- What’s that?” She had noticed the box he was carrying. Stepping aside to let him in, she stared at it as he handed it to her.

“Happy birthday, Saf.”

“You didn’t have to get me anything!”

“I wanted to. I wanted your first birthday living here to be special, especially since you’re my girlfriend.”

Safiya grinned and pressed a kiss to his cheek before pulling him to the sofa. She carefully opened it, gasping when she saw what it was. Gingerly, she lifted the necklace out of the box.

“This is beautiful, Seb. Where did you possibly find this?” she asked, examining the pattern of the wire wrap.

“I didn’t.”

Safiya looked up at him. “What do you mean, you didn’t?”

“I found the amethyst in the mines, and I made it into a necklace.”

Tears welled up in Safiya’s eyes, and she hugged him tight. “You’re the sweetest guy ever, thank you!” she cried.

Sebastian smiled. “For you, I try. Ask Maru, and she’ll probably disagree.”

Safiya laughed and pulled back from him. “Well, to me you’re the sweetest. Can you help me take off my old necklace?”

Sebastian nodded, and Safiya turned. Her old necklace was a tightly knotted but heavily frayed leather cord. It took him a minute or two to untie it, but he somehow managed to without shredding what was left of the cord. He handed her the older necklace, taking the new one and putting it on for her. Safiya turned back around, looking down at the pendant where it rested a bit below the hollow of her throat. She looked up and smiled at him.

“I think this is my best birthday I’ve ever had,” she said.

Sebastian smiled. “I’m glad. Here, I brought a movie too. Let’s watch that.”

* * *

 

It was a few days after Safiya’s birthday. Sebastian hadn’t had a chance to see Safiya that day. He had a gig he had to finish up for his freelancing, and she needed to practice her fishing for some jobs for Willy. They had agreed that they would just see each other later on, assuming they both had gotten enough done.

He still hadn’t heard from her by the time he normally went out to watch the water of the lake near his house and have a smoke. Sebastian was trying to quit, but it wasn’t an easy habit to kick. It had taken him ages to cut it down to just the one cigarette a day. After skipping the previous day’s smoke, though, his fingers were starting to get twitchy.

Sebastian grabbed his lighter and pulled one cigarette from his pack, heading for the lake. Playing with the flip cap on his lighter, Sebastian didn’t notice someone standing near his usual spot until he was almost there. It had been a cloudy night, though, so he still couldn’t quite tell who it was, just that they were fishing.

He heard splashing waters, followed by angry-sounding muttering. Confused, Sebastian moved closer to see what was going on. It was Safiya, getting upset over her struggles with fishing.

“Hey, Safiya. Still fishing?”

Safiya jumped, turning to face him. She smiled when she realized it was him, but quickly turned back to her fishing pole. “Yeah, I’m just so bad at it. I don’t know why it’s so hard for me.”

“Not everyone can be perfect at everything.”

“I know, but I’m, like, garbage at fishing. Can I at least be semi-decent?”

Sebastian shrugged. “Do you mind if I smoke?” he asked.

Safiya didn’t look at him, but he saw her purse her lips. “No, but I do worry about the toll that’s taking on your health.”

“I know,” Sebastian sighed. “But I didn’t have one yesterday at all and I’m getting twitchy.”

“Well, I’m proud of you for that. Go ahead,” Safiya said.

They stood together in silence once Sebastian lit up. He watched the smoke drift away while she kept a close eye on the bobber on her line. It had been a long time since the bite she lost, and she still hadn’t gotten another one. Sebastian was sure that was frustrating her just as much as losing a catch. He looked down into the water and saw, thanks to the full moon, that there was definitely fish in the water, but they just would not bite.

Sebastian had nearly made it through the entire cigarette before she finally got another bit. She shouted in excitement, startling him into nearly inhaling the whole cigarette, and fought hard against the line. It was almost there, he could see it getting closer –

And it was gone.

“Goddammit!” Safiya shouted, throwing the fishing pole on the ground. “I can’t believe this, my grandpa and Willy make it look so easy! Why can’t I just catch one measly fish?”

“Your grandpa?”

Safiya looked at Sebastian for a second, her face blank. Realization crossed her face a moment later. “Oh, not my grandpa who used to live here. My other grandpa. He lives way out there, further west along the coast. He loves fishing too and does it all the time, except he’s not a fisherman like Willy is. It’s just his hobby.”

“Oh, okay.”

“He used to take me along when I would visit him and he made it look so easy, but they hadn’t thought to start making kiddie fishing poles yet and I was too little to use even the smallest of his. I was absolutely tiny as a kid.”

Sebastian smirked. “I could see that,” he said, drawing himself to his full height. Safiya pouted up at him and playfully slugged him in the arm, and he fell back into his slouch, laughing. “Well, I can hang around with you until you catch something.”

“Oh, I couldn’t make you do that. I have no idea how long that could be.”

“I want to. Besides, maybe I can be your good luck charm or something.”

Safiya laughed. “And let me guess, all you want in return is for me to save one of the fish I catch to make you some sashimi, huh?”

“You know me too well,” Sebastian replied, nudging her. Safiya grinned.

“I try. Well, if you really want to give it a try, then why don’t we go over to that little pier over there so we can sit without soaking our butts in the grass?”

Sebastian laughed. “Sure, sounds good to me.”

Sebastian grabbed onto Safiya’s shoulder to keep balance while he snuffed out his cigarette on the bottom of his boot before carefully leaving it in a mound of dirt to pick up on his way back. He let her lead the way, allowing her to take him by the hand as they crossed the rickety planks serving as bridges across the water to the island. They settled side by side on the pier, being careful to keep their feet away from the surface of the water so they wouldn’t startle any fish. Safiya cast her line toward the center of a small school of fish.

“Please let me at least catch one more,” she whispered.

Sebastian reached over and put his hand on her thigh. She smiled, but she didn’t look away from her bobber. Barely a few seconds later, it disappeared under the water. Safiya gasped and began fighting the line, struggling with all her might to reel in whatever fish was on her hook. It took her a minute, but she finally managed to bring the fish in. Sebastian hurriedly reached down to help her bring the fish up onto the pier. She had managed to catch a largemouth bass.

Safiya’s mouth dropped open when she saw what she caught. “Wow, Seb, you really must be my good luck charm. I owe Jodi one of these, but I swear I’ll make you some sashimi with one of the other fish I caught today,” she said.

“Saf, it’s okay, you don’t have to.”

“No, I’m serious. This is amazing, thank you so much for your help or luck or whatever you want to call it,” she said, leaning over to give him a peck on the cheek.

Sebastian smiled. “Well, I’m glad I was able to help you,” he replied.

“If only I could channel some of that luck or whatever into something I could bring with me every time I go fishing. I’d feel bad dragging you along every time…”

“Yeah, I don’t think I’d be able to go with you every time, but I can at least sometimes.”

“That would be nice.”

“Yeah.”

They sat in silence a while longer, Safiya casting her line a few more times to catch a few more last minute fish. Finally, they decided it was getting too late to keep it up, so Sebastian helped Safiya clean up and walked her back to her house. She swung their linked hands the whole time they walked; Sebastian could feel her happiness bubbling off her. It had definitely turned into a good day for the both of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally here! The moment we've all been waiting for! I really wanted to post this chapter immediately after last week's for you guys, but I also wanted to stick to my schedule since this is the first time I've ever had a schedule when posting art or writing online... It was a huge dilemma, let me tell you. Also, I dunno about you guys, but I find it adorable that Sebastian's such a sap once you start dating him, and that he gets even more so when you marry him.
> 
> Also I hope you guys are as frustrated with the fishing mechanic in game as I am. Like I'm pretty decent at real fishing, but I'm AWFUL at fishing in game and it's really annoying. The only other thing that bothers me about this game is it doesn't let you celebrate your birthday, or your children's if you have any. Even if it was just a generic "happy birthday" message from all the characters you spoke to, I'd like that. And what about the children! I only remember mine because Serafina shares hers with Shane, and Seamus shares his with Alex. (Notice the family of S names, I did that on purpose ahaha;;)
> 
> And once again, as always, I hope you guys are enjoying this, and please let me know if you have any ideas/recommendations/encouragement as I'd love to hear it! :D!!


	8. Safiya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Safiya grows more comfortable with her relationship, and she begins to learn more too.

The Stardew Valley Fair had really snuck up on Safiya, even with Lewis’ reminder letter. She had saved some more expensive crystals she had found in the mines, and she had a recipe she was planning on cooking. She saved good quality forage and fish that she had found recently, and she was nurturing her own crops and animals even more attentively than usual. But it still wasn’t quite the place she had hoped she’d be in by the time the fair actually came around. She didn’t have high enough quality items to feel comfortable with her grange display.

Safiya had asked Robin and Marnie for some tips, knowing Lewis wouldn’t give out any hints himself, but it still wasn’t enough for her to feel comfortable. She was starting to worry herself to the point of going stir crazy. And that would be a bad thing when she was going to be paraded in front of both the whole town and all the visiting tourists.

It wasn’t as if Safiya had to win first place her very first year. She knew that wasn’t entirely likely. No, all she wanted was to not be last. Still, she kept worrying and worrying about the quality of her farm’s products the closer it came to the day of the fair.

Now that it was the day of, Safiya’s nerves were starting to fry her brain. Her automatic loom had already finished weaving her lamb’s wool into cloth, and she had already finished cooking the dish she planned on. There was no more prep work she could do any more. She dug her wheelbarrow out of the storage garage and began loading it up with her products, fretting over their rearrangements in the cart so they wouldn’t squish each other. Finally, she couldn’t take it any more. Safiya had to talk to someone before she lost her mind.

Plugging her headphones into her phone, Safiya dialed Sebastian’s number. She needed to be able to keep working while she spoke.

Sebastian picked up before the dial tone could finish one ring.

“Saf, is everything okay? You never call me, just text. What’s wrong?” he asked, sounding slightly nervous. She could hear the din of metal tools clanking around in the background.

“Yeah, I’m, uh, just kinda freaking out a little about the fair and needed to talk. And I wanted to hear your voice instead of just reading your words,” she explained. Safiya grimaced when she heard her voice trembling a little. She willed her hands to stop shaking as she loaded the last item into the wheelbarrow and picked up the handles.

“You sound like you’re about to cry, are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be fine soon. I just psyched myself out a little too much. Just, uh, talk to me a little. About anything. Please?”

“Of course. So, what do you want to do once we meet up at the fair?”

Safiya let out a tiny grunt when she lifted the handles of her wheelbarrow and began to push it toward town. “Hm, I’m not entirely sure. Does Gus or some visitor ever make funnel cake?”

“Uh, no, I don’t think so.”

“Aw, that sucks. I’ve always wanted to split a fair’s funnel cake with my theoretical boyfriend,” Safiya replied, smiling.

“Hey, I’d say I’m pretty damn real,” Sebastian replied, laughing.

“I know! But I haven’t been to a fair since I was too young to date. And, I’ll be honest here. I’ve, um, never really dated anyone before you. Sure, a couple casual dates here and there, but never more than one with the same person. So with our two months coming up soon…”

Sebastian was silent for a moment, with only the continued clinking of metal on metal coming through her headphones. She could only imagine his flush rising to match her own. She had felt it rising as she spoke.

“Seb? Babe, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, um.” Sebastian cleared his throat. “I’m fine. Just, um, glad I got the privilege of being your first boyfriend,” he replied, his voice a low whisper that sent a shiver up Safiya’s spine.

Safiya giggled. “Me too.” They were silent for a while. Safiya heard Sebastian place whatever he was carrying on a wooden table, followed quickly by some fumbling near his phone’s speaker.

“Sorry. Mom had me help her carry down some of her stuff for her display. We just got to her spot. I was getting a crick in my neck holding the phone against my shoulder.”

“Oh, yeah, no problem. I’m on my way myself. I’m by myself, so I had to load everything into my wheelbarrow to cart it over.”

“Do you need any help? I’m done helping Mom, so I could come help you now.”

“Oh, it’s okay. I’m almost there. Spend some time with Robin. I’ll be stealing you for most of the day later,” she replied. When she passed Pierre, he tried to start a conversation. She merely waved and pointed to her headphones, mouthing “phone” and “later” at him. He smiled and nodded at her, so Safiya picked up her wheelbarrow and continued on to her grange display.

“Oh, yeah, I think I see you now. Look to the right, toward the sewer.”

Safiya looked where she had been directed and saw Sebastian, waving at her from a spot near a table Robin was fussing over. She grinned and waved back. "Hey, you," she said, laughing. Her heart swelled when she heard his laughter - silent from across the plaza - surround her as it echoed from her headphones.

“Okay, well, I guess I should let you go so you can set up your display,” Sebastian said.

“Yeah, Lewis said that basically as soon as everyone’s done setting up he’ll start judging the ones that are going to be part of the contest, and I’m the last one here.”

“Alright. I’ll come find you after the judging. Are you okay now?”

“Yeah, thanks to you,” Safiya replied, smiling. “Alright, I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay. Bye, Saf.”

Safiya hung up and unplugged her headphones, stuffing them in her pocket. She carefully unloaded and arranged her products in the display, fretting over them for longer than was really necessary. When she finally felt okay about the arrangement, she went to find Lewis.

“Oh, Safiya! Good to see you! If you’re ready, then I’ll go ahead and start the judging now,” Lewis said, pulling a small notebook and pencil from his pocket.

“I’m ready if you are,” she replied.

“Alright. Go ahead and stand by your display while I judge them all.”

Safiya did what Lewis told her, waiting for her turn. She fidgeted in her place while Lewis stood examining her display, not sure if his hums were a good sign or a bad one. When he moved on to the next one, she let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding. Finally, Lewis finished judging all the displays and moved to the center of the town square.

“Alright everyone, the grange display results are in! Gather around for the award ceremony!” he called.

Safiya moved with the crowd, anxiously playing with the hem of her shirt. A hand gently squeezed her shoulder. When she looked, she realized Sebastian was standing somewhat behind her. He smiled at her. She gave him the best smile she could muster and put her hand on top of his.

“This year’s winner is… Pierre!”

Though she was disappointed she didn’t win, Safiya still smiled and clapped. She didn’t like how he got when he was in a competitive mood, but he was always nice to her otherwise. Lewis waited for the crowd to quiet down before he began announcing the runners-up.

“In second place, our very own new farmer, Safiya!”

Safiya grinned and laughed, bouncing on the balls of her feet. She turned to Sebastian and threw her arms around his neck. He was startled for a moment, but he quickly put his arms around her too.

“And in third place, Marnie!”

Safiya barely heard Lewis’ last announcement. She was still too excited about the fact that she, somehow, some way, had managed to make it to second place despite all her worrying. She had let Sebastian go, but she was still clinging to his arm as the applause died down.

“You know, I thought I’d have to be comforting you after the results after your call earlier,” Sebastian said after they found a spot off to the side to sit together.

“No, I just didn’t want last. Sorry for worrying you.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just glad you weren’t so upset I couldn’t help you. And I’m so proud of how well you did,” he said, leaning down to kiss her cheek.

Safiya giggled. “Thank you! Well, now that that’s over, do you have anything you want to do while we’re here?” she asked.

“I think it’ll just be fun to wander around and play some of the games. If we win, we win. If not, no big deal. Oh, and the clairvoyant is fun to talk to.”

“Why don’t we do the clairvoyant first?”

“Sure. She sets up in the graveyard.”

“Ooh, I like it. That’s fitting for a clairvoyant.”

They walked together toward the clairvoyant tent. Sebastian had let Safiya go first, so she nervously stepped into the tent, dropping the cloth door shut behind her. The clairvoyant smiled at her and gestured to a pile of pillows on the other side of her table. Safiya gingerly settled herself on the pillows, not wanting to disturb the mountainous pile too much.

“I do not remember seeing you last year. Are you new to Pelican Town, child?” the clairvoyant asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I see. New faces are always welcome in here.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

“Let me see what the crystal ball will show me about you, hm?”

Once Safiya nodded, the clairvoyant closed her eyes and passed her hands over and around the crystal ball, mumbling an incantation. Safiya could feel energy welling up in the crystal ball, swirling around her as it moved toward it.

“I see that your past has not been a particularly smooth trip for you. I do not see many details, so I will assume this means you do not like to speak or think about several events in your past. This is why you have come to the valley, is it not?” Safiya nodded in confirmation. “You were very worried about fitting in here because of things that have happened in your past. But I see that this has not been a problem for you. This is very good news. I see that you are particularly close with the young man named Sebastian, as well as his mother Robin.”

“Yes, ma’am, they were my first friends here.”

“You and Sebastian are very close. A new relationship, yes?”

Safiya blushed. “Yes, ma’am.”

“I see that you care for him very much. Dare I say you are beginning to love him. I see that he feels the same way for you. As for his mother, Robin, she deeply cares for you, as if you were family. I see that someday that may be fact.”

“Wh- what do you mean?”

The clairvoyant merely smiled before moving on. “I see that in your future, after your life seems to have become perfect, you may struggle with some things that have been a result of your past. You have previously bottled everything up until you explode, which has occasionally caused problems with people in your life. Should these struggles come to pass, I recommend that you turn to those you are close to for help. I do not believe they would react the way others have in your past should you repeat your past habits, but it would be better for you to turn to them. They are there for you whenever you need it. I do not speak of only the young man Sebastian and his mother Robin. I am also speaking of the rest of their family, your friends Samson and Abigail, and the fisherman Willy. Even Linus, as closed to you as he may seem right now, considers you a friend and would be willing to help you if you asked. I am certain that others would be willing to lend you their aide should you ask, as well.”

Safiya sniffed, feeling her eyes prickle. She wasn’t sure if it was because of knowing that her past may come back to haunt her again, or if it was discovering what the people she cared about really thought about her. Both were very overwhelming to learn so suddenly. “Thank you, ma’am.”

“Of course, my child. I do not see anything else for you. I hope that when I see you again next year, things are going very well.”

Safiya smiled and paid the clairvoyant, tying back the entry flap and thanking her as she left. Sebastian straightened, having leaned against the fence post while he waited. She gave him a shaky smile and hugged him, glad to feel him gently rubbing her back to comfort her.

“I’m sorry I’m so emotional today,” she mumbled into his shoulder.

Sebastian reached up to stroke her hair. “Don’t be. We all have days like this. You’ve been here how long now? And I don’t remember you having one this whole time. You deserve it.”

“I guess so. She just told me a bunch of stuff that got to me pretty well.”

“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, but I’m here for you if you do.”

“Thank you.”

Safiya allowed herself to be held a little while longer before she pulled back. “I don’t want to keep you from getting your turn. Go ahead, and then we can play some games,” she said, giving him a peck on the cheek.

Sebastian nodded and went into the tent. He was in there for about five minutes before he came back out again, looking very surprised. She met him halfway, curious but confused about why he was surprised.

“I completely forgot about it, but she reminded me. Last year, she told me that I’d meet someone who would become special to me this year. She reminded me about that when I walked in.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It was you, by the way. You were the one she meant,” Sebastian replied, nudging her and smiling.

“Well, I’m glad that came true. Are you ready to go play some of the carnival games?”

“Yeah. Let’s go see how bad you are at the fishing game,” he teased. Safiya groaned, but she took his hand and followed where he led.

* * *

 

It was a rainy day, and Sebastian had come to visit Safiya. He had found her finishing up some chores, so he had tossed her towel and some blankets into her dryer and had been waiting with them for her to come back in. They had curled up together on the couch, at first playing some co-op games together but eventually deciding to have a movie marathon together. Adonis had been curled up by their feet the whole day, half asleep and huffing in happiness.

Halfway through the second movie, Sebastian laid down on the couch, using Safiya’s lap as a pillow. Adonis, hearing the movement, got up and jumped onto the couch, curling up near Sebastian’s feet. Safiya looked over everything with a smile. This was her heaven right then.

Safiya reached down and ran her hands through Sebastian’s hair as she watched. She nearly gasped when she felt how soft it was. It was softer than her own, thanks to the frizz she couldn’t tame. She couldn’t help but continue to play with it.

Sebastian let out a content sigh, causing her to pause her movements. He looked up at her, eyes slightly confused. Safiya smoothed his bangs out of his eyes, and he smiled at her.

“Did you like me doing that?” she asked. Sebastian nodded. “Okay. I’ll keep doing it, then.”

Sebastian looked back to the TV screen, and Safiya returned to playing with his hair. She smiled when she heard him sigh again. She ran her nails against his scalp, gently scratching in what she hoped was a relaxing manner. Then, she began to lightly massage his scalp. He began to lean into her touch, and when she looked down, Safiya noticed that his eyes were closed.

Safiya smiled again. He really enjoyed this. She decided that she would do this for him as often as she feasibly could. She liked to see him happy and stress-free, and this seemed like a good way to make that happen, even if only for a little while. Leaning down, she paused her hands and pressed a quick kiss to his temple before resuming her playing with his hair. Sebastian smiled.

She looked up and noticed Adonis had shifted to use Sebastian’s knees as a pillow. He looked like he was smiling at her. Trying to keep from moving Sebastian too much, she reached over and scratched her dog’s head too. Safiya smiled to herself, noticing Sebastian was drifting asleep, and went back to just running her hands through his hair again. Yeah, she could get used to this. This was perfect.

* * *

 

Safiya nervously shifted the bowl she had in her hands before she let herself into the house. Robin had invited her to have dinner with them for her birthday, and while she had had a birthday dinner with them before, Safiya was nervous because this was the first one where she would be there as the girlfriend, rather than as just a friend. She had made spaghetti from scratch, using ingredients she had grown or made herself, to be Robin’s birthday present. She knew Robin loved spaghetti, and her grandpa’s recipe was just amazing and had to be shared.

She made her way toward the kitchen, following the sound of Robin’s laughter. Sebastian was the first to notice her when she arrived. He smiled at her, and that was when everyone else noticed her too. They all turned to greet her, and Robin moved to stand beside her.

“I’m so glad you could make it, Safiya!” she said.

“Of course I’d come. Here, I brought this. I knew you like spaghetti, so I made some for you. I used my grandpa’s recipe,” Safiya replied, passing Robin the bowl.

“Oh, sweetie, thank you! That’s so sweet of you!” Robin said, grinning.

“I just wanted to do something for you, that’s all.”

“Well, I love it. Thank you!” Robin replied, sniffing.

“Mom, are you about to cry?” Maru asked.

Robin laughed. “I dunno, I kinda feel like it. I’m just so touched, you know?”

“Please don’t cry, Mom,” Maru said.

“I’ll try! Here, Safiya, go ahead and sit down. I just need to pull the bread out of the oven really quick, and then we can eat.”

Robin handed Maru the bowl of spaghetti and moved to the oven. Sebastian pulled out a chair for Safiya beside his, and they sat together, hands on the table on top of each other. Safiya didn’t miss the expression on Demetrius’ face when he noticed that. She knew that his relationship with Sebastian wasn’t the greatest, but she didn’t understand why he seemed so disapproving that she was dating him. She thought her relationship with Demetrius was good enough, considering the fact that he was so friendly and glad to see her when she stopped by (he had even sent her a few recipes of his as gifts), so she just didn’t understand why he would be bothered by her and Sebastian.

Robin brought the bread over to the table, smiling at Safiya and Sebastian, and settled herself. Everyone began to dish up, but Robin sat still and looked at the two of them. Safiya paused and looked up at her.

“Did you need something, Robin?” she asked.

“I have a request for you, Safiya.”

“What is it?”

“I want you to call me Mom from now on,” Robin replied.

Sebastian choked on his drink, and Maru and Demetrius turned to look at Robin. Safiya felt her face heat up, and she could see out of the corner of her eye that Sebastian was blushing even worse than she was as he cleaned up his spill.

“Mom!” Sebastian cried.

“A- are you sure?” Safiya asked.

“Of course I am! You’re part of the family now, so I want you to call me that.”

“Um, okay. I- I guess I can do that.”

“Do what? What are you going to call me now?” Robin pressed.

“Mom, I think you’re embarrassing them,” Maru cut in, trying to save them. She was a little red, herself. She was probably getting secondhand embarrassment from the situation and was trying to stop that, but Safiya still appreciated her effort even if it was slightly for her own benefit.

“Okay, okay. I know it’ll take some getting used to, so just whenever you get yourself used to the idea you can start up,” Robin finally said.

Safiya gave Maru a relieved smile. Demetrius, beside Maru, was unreadable about the situation. She couldn’t tell what he possibly could have felt about the situation. At that point, though, Safiya didn’t quite care. She was still trying to calm herself down from the embarrassment. Sebastian was only just starting to relax himself.

Everyone finished dishing up their dinner and began to eat. Safiya lit up when everyone complimented her on her cooking when they tried the spaghetti she had brought. Sebastian pat her leg, smiling at her. The rest of dinner went smoothly, and when everyone finished and helped clean up, Safiya found herself being dragged down to Sebastian’s room. They sat together on his bed, and he took both of her hands in his.

“I’m sorry about my mom. She’s just so embarrassing sometimes…” he said, running his thumbs over her knuckles. He wouldn’t meet her eyes.

Safiya took one of her hands and reached up to push Sebastian’s hair out of his eyes. He looked up at her through his bangs. “Hey, it’s okay. I don’t mind. It’ll take some getting used to, but I really don’t mind. It means a lot to me that she cares that much about me,” she replied.

Sebastian smiled at her and leaned a little into her touch. “You don’t have to listen to her,” he said.

“I know, but I really don’t mind.”

He was silent for a while, looking down at their hands. “It’s just…”

“Just what?”

Sebastian flushed again, refusing to meet her eyes. He mumbled something, but Safiya couldn’t hear him.

“What did you say?” she asked.

Sebastian’s blush went even darker. “We haven’t even kissed or said anything yet,” he mumbled.

A tiny smile made its way onto Safiya’s face. “That’s true.”

Sebastian simply shrugged, not saying anything else. They were silent for a while. Finally, Sebastian spoke up. “I’ve, um, been waiting for you to seem comfortable. I’ve wanted to, but I know you’re not much for people touching you or anything, and to be honest I’m still trying to work everything out in my head, you know? I mean, obviously I really like you and care about you, but sometimes I feel like it’s a dream and I’m going to wake up and none of it will be true. And I have to remind myself that it’s real, does that make sense? So, um… Yeah.”

Safiya smiled. “I know what you mean. It’s the same for me sometimes, too. Thank you, Seb. That really means a lot to me,” she said, weaving her fingers with his. “I’m a little embarrassed to right now after what happened earlier, but soon. Is that okay?”

“Of course it is. I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable in any way,” Sebastian said, quickly looking up at her. She smiled at him.

“Thank you.” She stood, pulling him up with her. “Come on, why don’t we watch a movie before I have to go?”

Sebastian nodded, following her to his couch. Once they settled together, legs tangled and heads leaning together, Safiya wove her fingers with his. She felt him move and press a kiss to her temple. Smiling, she squeezed his hand and snuggled in closer, happy she found such an amazing man when she took her grandfather’s advice and gift to move here. She silently thanked him for opening the door to the best gift of all as she rubbed circles on Sebastian’s knuckles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for the fair I was so worried about not placing my first year... I started saving stuff up like halfway through the summer (my friend who got me into this game showed me the fair long before I got there, which led to me panicking about it early ahaha;;;)
> 
> Also I would love for someone to run their fingers through my hair and play with it and massage my scalp someday, so Sebastian's love for that is me being self indulgent again.
> 
> Hope you guys like a bit of foreshadowing! ;D As always, I love to hear what you guys think about this! So if you have any encouragement, ideas, recommendations, whatever! that you want to share please let me know!


	9. Sebastian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian finally comes clean about how he really feels.

Spirit’s Eve. One of Sebastian’s favorite holidays. It was finally here, and Sebastian was ready. He had been ready since last year’s Spirit’s Eve.

He waited by the caged skeletons Marlon had brought for Safiya to meet up with him. They were going to make their way through the maze together once she arrived. The skeletons fascinated him every year. Sebastian wasn’t sure how Marlon managed to wrangle them and bring them up for everyone to see, but they were just so strange and cool. Currently, one was standing just on the other side of the cage, close enough that he could touch its shoulder, and it was just staring at him. The glowing light emanating from its eye sockets was fixated on his own gaze.

“Hey, Seb. I think this one likes you,” Safiya’s voice said from beside him.

Sebastian turned to look at her, but just as it was no longer in his gaze, she pushed him back and began reaching for her sword, her arm protectively in front of him. He startled at the sudden movement and her intense gaze, turning to look at what she was staring at. The skeleton he had been looking at had reached through the cage and tried to grab his shirt. Safiya had prevented it from touching him.

Seconds later, Marlon ran over brandishing his own sword, hitting it against the metal cage and yelling at the skeleton. The noise seemed to startle the skeleton, as it let out a sound like rustling leaves and jumped back to another corner of the cage. It stared at them from there, refusing to move again once it stopped.

“Sorry about that, you two. I should have warned you it might do that when I first noticed it moving closer, but it looked like it was behaving so well that I didn’t think I’d have to,” Marlon explained, sheathing his sword.

“It’s okay. Safiya was here to keep it from doing anything,” Sebastian replied.

“Yeah, it didn’t look like it was going to do anything at first,” she added.

“Still, I should have said something. I’m glad it didn’t manage to do anything to you, though. I had better get back to keeping an eye on these things, so you two have fun,” Marlon said. He smiled at them and went back to his post, keeping a watchful eye over everyone looking at the skeletons.

Sebastian and Safiya turned to each other. “Well. That was an exciting start to the night,” Sebastian said.

Safiya took his hand. “I’m just glad I caught it before it could do anything. Are you okay?”

“Yeah. It startled me when you suddenly pushed me back, but I’m glad you did,” he replied, smiling at her.

“Me too. Well, are you ready to go wander the maze?” Safiya asked.

“Sure. The wizard says he always hides a prize, but no one ever manages to find it. He’s too good at making that maze.”

“Huh. Maybe there’s a secret passage or something.”

“I guess that’s possible, but no one’s ever found it yet.”

Sebastian grabbed Safiya’s hand and led her to the entrance to the maze. Once there, though, he let her lead, deciding that since the maze was the same every year and he knew everything that had been explored so far, he would let her explore the place and just lead him. She wandered through the maze, leading him by the hand and laughing about how one or two people were lost even after having tried the exact same maze for years.

Finally, they reached the furthest point of the maze that anyone had made it to. Sebastian chewed his cheek, wondering if Safiya would find something. She let go of his hand to investigate the area. He glanced away, checking the time on his phone. When he looked back up, she was gone.

“Saf? Saf, where are you?” he yelled. Panic started to set in when there wasn’t an immediate answer. He began to turn in every direction, looking for her. “Safiya! Where did you go?”

“Over here!”

Sebastian whipped his head around toward the direction her voice had come from. Safiya’s head poked up from the other side of a solid hedge, quickly disappearing and then reappearing again. She was jumping to see over the hedge. Relief washed over him, followed quickly by a combination of amusement and confusion. He thought it was adorable that she was doing that so he could find her, but he had no clue how she had managed to find a way over there. He moved to the hedge, standing on his toes to peer over it at her.

“How in the world did you manage to get over there?” he asked, reaching over to touch the top of her head.

“This isn’t actually solid hedge right here. There’s a gap here. It’s not very big, but I found it.” Just then, Sebastian felt a hand poking at his stomach. He jumped back from the sensation and looked down to see Safiya’s freckled hand poking through the hedge. Her hand withdrew, and he moved back to peer back over the hedge. She was giving him a devilish grin.

“Are you ticklish?” she asked.

Sebastian flushed. “No, I’m not!”

“Whatever you say!” Safiya replied in a sing-song voice.

“Anyway, how did you find that gap? It’s basically invisible.”

“Oh, I just started to kinda push at the hedge and found the gap when my arm went through.”

“Do you think I could fit through?”

“Hm. Maybe, if you crouch and I help you hold it open.”

“Then, let’s do it. I want to see the end of this thing,” Sebastian said, ducking back behind the hedge.

He felt through the hedge until his arm went through the way Safiya said it would. Safiya began to pull aside branches to make a wider opening for him while he pushed himself through. Once through, he brushed leaves and twigs off his clothes, bending down so Safiya could help pull more out of his hair. She tucked some locks behind his ear, smiling at him.

“You know, you’re a real cryptid sometimes, Saf,” Sebastian said, putting his arm around her shoulders. She playfully elbowed him in the side, and he laughed. “Hey, I’m just getting even for the theoretical boyfriend joke!”

Safiya let out a groan that was interrupted by her own laughter. “Alright, fine, you win this time. Anyway, you ready to keep exploring?” she asked, putting her arm around his waist.

“Yeah, but I’ve never seen this part of the maze so I can’t help any more.”

“It’s fine. We’re here together, so we’ll be able to figure it out. Come on.”

They walked together, following the path. Luckily for them, there were no dead ends beyond the hidden path through the hedge. It got dark in a tunnel (and Sebastian swore that tunnel never existed before the festival), but they just took out their phones and used the flashlight functions to make it through without issue. When they emerged from the tunnel, they found themselves at the chest Alex always said he was going to get but couldn’t find a way through to. They looked at each other, and Sebastian gestured for Safiya to open it.

When she did, she lifted out a golden pumpkin. She turned it around in her hands, examining it. Sebastian leaned over and knocked on it. The pumpkin was hollow, and it felt like ceramic or something along those lines.

“This is cute!” Safiya said.

“I wonder how much you could get for it.”

“I don’t want to sell it though.”

“Well, what do you want to do with it?”

Safiya fell silent, thinking. “I want to keep it. Put the date and our initials on it and use it to decorate my house. What do you think?” she asked hesitantly.

“I think that’s a great idea,” Sebastian said, putting his arms around her waist. Safiya leaned her head back against his chest.

“Good. I have paint that we can do that with when we get out of here,” she replied. He could hear the smile in her voice.

Chuckling echoed down from above them. They turned to follow the noise and saw Linus and the wizard, standing on the hill above them. Linus was hiding half his face behind a hand, but the wizard was openly laughing. Sebastian flushed.

“Oh, hey, guys. What’re you doing up there?” Safiya asked. Sebastian turned to her, incredulous.

“You’re not fazed by them being up there and watching everything?” he asked.

“Well, no. Linus and I are pretty good friends, and Wizard knows everything.”

Sebastian blanched for a second. He had to concede to her statement, but he was still embarrassed that they had seen everything, even if it was that innocent. He still had only told Mom, and Maru when she asked (thankfully Maru was the only one Mom had told so far). Not even Sam or Abbie knew yet, though he was sure they suspected. Well, they hadn't exactly been subtle ever since the fair, either, so he was sure everyone had put two and two together, but he hadn't outright told anyone except his mom and sister. He shook his head.

“So, wait, how did you guys even get up there if you were the ones setting everything up?” he asked.

“Well, my boy, I would think that it would be obvious,” Wizard said, putting his hands on his hips. Sebastian nodded and looked at Linus.

“You don’t know? Linus is-!” Safiya began.

“Safiya…” Linus warned.

“Oh… Sorry, Linus. I haven’t told anyone, I promise.”

Linus smiled. “I know. Thank you. Let me know next time you would like some fishing lessons, or even just a chat.”

“Yes, thank you!” Safiya looked at Sebastian, then turned back to Wizard and Linus. “Well, we’re going to head out, but thank you both! The maze was wonderful! Even if Sebastian called me a cryptid for finding a hidden path.”

Wizard and Linus laughed. “Of course, my girl. I am just glad someone finally managed to complete my maze. Come see me when you are ready for another lesson on the arcane,” Wizard replied.

“I will. Thank you!”

With that, Safiya turned and began pulling Sebastian toward the exit. He stumbled, but quickly caught up to walk beside her. “So, you’re Wizard’s apprentice?” he asked.

Safiya shrugged. “Kinda? It’s not exactly easy to explain. I’ll probably just have to show you at some point.”

“Fair enough. Are you ready to go paint this pumpkin?”

“Yeah, let’s go do that. We can chow down on some candy I have and watch some scary movies too.”

“That sounds like a perfect night to me.”

* * *

 

Sebastian was sitting at his computer, working. Safiya was draped across his couch, reading a comic that had been sitting out on his table. She had finished her chores early, but she was still pretty tired from all the work she had done the previous day. So, she had come to relax with him, saying that if she tried to at her own house she’d get antsy and feel like she had to be doing something.

She also had come to help Sebastian save the flowers she had given him close to two weeks ago now; somehow they had lasted that long before starting to wilt. Using some twine she had brought with her and a hook she found screwed into the roof in the corner, she tied up the flowers and hung them upside down to dry. She said that they could then either pull off the petals and put them in a bowl or spray them with a sealing spray and put them back out as they were. Sebastian still hadn’t decided which he liked better.

Sebastian sighed and leaned back in his chair, stretching, and winced when several joints along his spine and in his shoulders popped loudly. Safiya leaned back over the arm of his couch to look at him (upside down, she was so cute!) and smiled at him. She sat up and put the comic on the table again.

“Are you taking a break?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m gonna fry my brain if I keep working. Plus I’m sure you heard those cracks, I need to stop hunching over my computer.”

“Well, c’mere then,” Safiya replied, patting her lap.

Sebastian moved to lie on the couch and use Safiya’s lap as a pillow, smiling when she immediately threaded her fingers into his hair and began massaging his scalp. He felt her work at his ear for a moment. She was probably untangling some of his hair from his earrings for him. Then, she went right back to running her fingers through his hair.

“That feels amazing. You’re the best, you know that?” he said.

Safiya laughed. “Well, I know you like it when I do this, and this is the least I could do for letting me camp out in your room for practically half the day.”

“You’re always welcome here, even if I’m not here. In case you couldn’t tell, I like spending time with you.”

She let out an overly exaggerated gasp. “You do? I had no idea,” she replied, sarcasm dripping from her voice.

Sebastian laughed. “Alright, tone it down, you actress. But seriously, whenever you want, even if I’m not here.”

“Alright, thank you. The same goes for you at my house.”

“Well, thank you. So, anything exciting going on in the life of Safiya Al-Amuli?”

Safiya thought for a moment, her hands slowing in his hair. “Well, I did make a couple new friends,” she said slowly.

“Yeah? Who is it? Elliot and Leah?”

“No, I’m already pretty good friends with them. Uh, so, you know how there’s that sewer grate near Sam’s house?”

Sebastian’s eyebrows knit together, and he turned to look up at her. Where was she going with this? “Yeah, what about it?”

“So, I got my hands on a key to the sewer, and I was curious so I went in. And, uh, once you get past the smell it’s not too bad in there. And there’s, uh, a rare items shop down there.”

“Seriously?”

“I’m being a hundred percent serious here. It’s run by a friendly shadow brute named Krobus.” Sebastian was silent for a while, staring at her. Safiya bit her lip. “I know it sounds crazy, but-!”

“A friendly… shadow brute. Named Krobus?”

“Yeah. He sells a bunch of cool stuff, but it’s expensive because it’s rare so I haven’t bought much.”

“Alright. I guess weirder things have happened around here, so I believe you. You’re sure he won’t hurt you?”

“Krobus doesn’t even have arms. What’s he gonna do, headbutt me to death?”

Sebastian laughed. “Alright, you’ve got a point. That’s interesting. But you said friends, plural. Who’s the other one?”

“Uh, this one’s gonna sound even more weird.”

“Hit me.”

“So, you know how in the entrance to the mine there’s that smaller room off to the side, but it was blocked off with a pile of boulders?” Safiya asked.

“Yeah. Did you get through?”

“Yeah, with a cherry bomb. Don’t worry, I ran to the other side of the cavern so it wouldn’t get me too. Anyway, when I went in there, there was another rare items shop.”

“Another one? What, does Krobus teleport or have another armless shadow brute buddy that mans that shop for him?”

“No, uh, this one’s run by a dwarf.”

“A dwarf.”

“Uh-huh.”

“A real, live dwarf? Living in our mines and selling rare items?”

“Yeah. I told you it’d sound weird.”

“No, I believe you. Like I said, weirder things have happened around here. I’m just surprised you managed to make friends with them both. Especially since dwarves and shadow brutes, like, hate each other.”

“Well, I don’t think they know each other. Though I’m sure they’ll explode if they find out about each other. I’m just hoping that if something like that happens, Wizard is paying attention and can go help prevent the fight that’s bound to happen.”

“For your sake, I hope so too,” Sebastian replied.

“So, you don’t think I’m weird for making friends with a shadow brute and a dwarf?” Safiya asked.

“I mean, it’s weird that they were willing to be friends with you. But no, it’s not weird of you. You make friends with everyone. Hell, you’re dating the resident basement gremlin of the valley, I don’t think anyone could be that surprised.”

“You’re not a basement gremlin!” Safiya replied, laughing. “Besides, I like you. That’s all that matters.”

Sebastian laughed. “Yeah, it is. But this does make you even more of a cryptid than finding that hidden passage did, you know. You managed to make friends with a shadow brute AND a dwarf at the same time, that’s pretty nonexistent.”

“Oh yeah? Well, here’s what I say to that,” Safiya laughed, pinching his ear.

“Ow! Hey, let go of my ear!” Sebastian laughed.

Safiya let go, still laughing, and went back to running her fingers through his hair. Sebastian looked up at her, smiling. She smoothed his bangs out of his eyes and leaned down, pressing a kiss to his forehead before leaning forward to grab his remote. He had to close his eyes to keep her necklace – the very one he had made her and she hadn’t taken off since – from accidentally poking him in the eyes.

“Let’s watch a movie while you’re taking your break.”

Sebastian rolled over to be able to see the TV screen. Safiya put her arm over his shoulder, and he reached up to lace his fingers with hers. He glanced up at her, and his heart swelled. He still couldn’t believe that she actually liked him too.

He loved her. Yoba, he really did, and he was incredibly thankful that he had the enough luck for her to like him too. He wanted to tell her right then and there, but he decided against it, wanting to create a better moment for it. His thoughts drifted from the movie, instead working through a good way to finally put in words that he loved her.

* * *

 

Sebastian was leaning against his parked motorcycle, checking his texts every few seconds. He had finally worked out a perfect way to tell Safiya, and now he was just waiting for her to respond to his text.

**To: Safiya**

**hey so i have something i want to show you. can you come to my house? i’ll be waiting out front with my motorcycle, it’s not around here so we’ll be taking that. you should probably bring a jacket too**

It had been ten minutes since he had sent that text. He knew she was probably busy, but he was getting antsy. Tonight was the perfect night to take her to his favorite place. It was still pretty warm, and the skies were totally clear without even any wind. They would be able to see for miles with no issue at all. Finally, Sebastian’s phone chimed, and he fumbled to check it.

**From: Safiya**

**I’m so sorry I didn’t see this earlier!! I just got out of the shower!! Let me just dry my hair really quick and then I’ll be there, give me like 20 more minutes!!**

**To: Safiya**

**no rush babe i totally understand! take your time, it’s not time sensitive**

Barely fifteen minutes later, Safiya came trotting around the corner of the house. She was in a pair of black leggings, knee high boots, and a purple knit sweater. The necklace he had made her was still around her neck. Her hair was down, a rare sight. Sebastian always forgot how long her hair actually was; it went halfway down her back. He smiled at her and stood straight.

“Hey! I’m so sorry, I hope you haven’t been waiting too long,” she apologized.

“No, not long. It’s okay. Will you be warm enough in that?” Sebastian asked.

Safiya tugged at her leggings. “These are fleece lined, and I have a shirt under this sweater. And I put everything in the dryer for a few minutes while I dried my hair. I should be okay.”

“Alright. Here, put this on,” he replied, handing her a blue helmet with a face mask. He put on his own black one and straddled the motorcycle, the engine roaring to life under him once he turned the key. He turned back to Safiya, who was standing beside him and watching what he did. “Okay, climb on behind me. You’ll want to hold on tight. Wrap your arms around my chest, and squeeze my hips with your knees. Oh, and when I lean, lean with me. It’ll help the turns go more smoothly.”

Safiya nodded and did as he said, spreading her hands across his chest as she held tightly onto his back. Her knees were tight around his waist, but not uncomfortably so. Sebastian revved the engine and reached back to pat her knee as she leaned her head between his shoulder blades.

“We won’t be able to hear each other over the engine once we get going, so if you need to stop for some reason, tap me twice, okay?” he shouted over the engine. He felt her nod against his back. “Okay, here we go.”

They took off, the engine roaring over the silence of the valley. The entire hour and a half ride went smoothly. They were alone on the road, and the full moon made it perfect to see the scenery. At one point, Sebastian glanced down at their shadow and saw Safiya’s hair flowing behind her in the wind. He smiled, turning his attention back to the road.

Finally, he turned onto the dirt road that led to the cliff that overlooked Zuzu City. His favorite place. Once stopped, Sebastian shut off the engine, and silence washed over them. They stepped off the motorcycle, placing their helmets on the seat and shaking out their hair. Safiya began to shiver, and he rubbed his hands along her arms.

“Are you cold?”

“I was fine while holding onto you, but now I’m getting cold. It’s colder here than it was in the valley.”

Sebastian shrugged off his hoodie and wrapped it around her shoulders. She smiled and put it on, pulling the collar up to her nose. “It smells like you,” she said softly.

“What, cigarettes?”

“A little bit, but more like you. Like… Like amber and vanilla and patchouli incense. I love it.” She flapped her arms in the too-long sleeves and giggled. “I’m swimming in it. Surrounded by your scent.”

Sebastian smiled. She was adorable. He took her hand and led her closer to the edge of the cliff. She tightened her grip on his hand as she peered over the cliff.

“It’s so pretty here. That’s Zuzu, isn’t it?” she asked, looking up toward the city lights.

Sebastian nodded. “I come here when I want to get away from everything and just think.”

They were silent for a minute or two, and Sebastian’s nerves began to set in. His fingers were itching for a cigarette. He let go of Safiya’s hand and found a broken one in his pants pocket. He tossed away the end without a filter and pulled a lighter from his pocket.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sebastian could see the look Safiya was giving the cigarette in his hands. “I’m sorry. I’m just really nervous. This tiny broken one is all I have, promise. Do you mind if I just smoke this little bit?” he asked.

Safiya met his eyes, her eyes full of kind understanding. “I understand. You told me you’re quitting, so I know it’s been hard on you. Go ahead.”

Sebastian gave her a relieved smile and lit up the broken cigarette. All that was left was two puffs’ worth, but it was enough to calm him down enough to not panic. He stamped out the remaining bit and moved back to Safiya, grabbing her hand once again. They smiled at each other and looked out over the city lights again.

“So… What do you think?” Sebastian finally asked.

“It’s beautiful.”

“Not exactly how I’d put it, but yeah. It is.”

They fell silent again, and Sebastian looked down at the cliff below them. So many times, so many hours spent sitting on this cliff. He couldn’t even count how many any more.

“The city used to draw me in, but now I’m finding myself happier at home in the valley… Saf…?”

Safiya turned to him. She smiled at him and rubbed her thumb along his knuckle.

“I, uh, don’t usually bring girls – well, anybody, really – to this place. In fact, you’re the only one. You know what I’m trying to say, don’t you?” he asked.

Safiya smiled and nodded. “Thank you for bringing me here. I know this is a special place for you.”

Sebastian brought their hands up and put her knuckles against his cheek. He smiled at her, then let their hands drop again. He could feel himself blushing, but he had already put so much work into setting up the perfect scenario for this. He couldn’t back out now.

“Saf, I…”

“It’s okay. Take your time.”

Sebastian took a deep breath and started over. “Safiya, I love you. I really do. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” he whispered.

Safiya took in a sharp breath and looked deep into his eyes, blushing. Sebastian felt his own blush deepening. Still, she didn’t say anything. Sebastian grabbed her other hand.

“Please say something,” he mumbled.

Safiya gave him the most dazzling smile he had ever seen. “I love you too, Sebastian,” she whispered.

Sebastian let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. He smiled at her and hugged her tightly, clutching at the back of her sweater. Safiya let out a choked laugh. He leaned back to look at her and wiped away the beginnings of tears forming in her eyes. They smiled at each other, and Safiya leaned into the hand he had left on her cheek. She slowly, hesitantly, began to lean in toward him.

Sebastian met her halfway, and their lips met in a sweet, simple kiss. His eyes fluttered closed, and he moved to cup the back of her head. The world just melted away from around them. He heard Safiya let out a tiny noise, and he felt her bunch his shirt up in her fist. When they pulled apart, he looked at her with hooded eyes. Safiya was looking at him with big, sparkling eyes filled with every emotion he had just been failing to convey in words.

Safiya smiled at him. Sebastian began to lean back in, but she looked down. He pulled back a little further, afraid he had done something wrong.

“Saf? Babe, is everything okay?” he asked, reaching up to push her bangs out of her eyes.

Safiya blushed and looked back at him. “Everything is perfect. I, um… I’ve just never kissed anyone before you, and, um, I’m a little nervous. And afraid I wasn’t doing something right,” she mumbled.

Sebastian reached up to brush some hair out of her face. “You don’t have to worry about anything like that with me. You’re perfect.”

“But what if I do something wrong or am a bad kisser?”

“Do you want to know what my experience is? In middle school, Abbie gave me possibly the worst kiss ever, seconds before she realized she didn’t actually like me as more than a friend. And I stood completely frozen. It was like two brick walls just smashed into each other and then stood there in an awkward silence. And you are a million times better than anything I could have imagined,” Sebastian said, gently caressing her cheek.

Safiya let out a tiny laugh and looked up at him. “Well, I think an actual brick wall could have done better than that,” she replied.

Sebastian chuckled. “Yeah, probably. But you’re way better than any brick wall. Or any other person out there.”

“I have to disagree, I think _you’re_ better than any brick wall or other person out there.”

“Is that going to be our inside joke now? ‘You’re better than a brick wall?’” Sebastian asked, laughing. Safiya laughed.

“Well, now that you’ve said that, I think it has to be,” she replied, reaching up to pull him back down to her level.

They kissed again, and just like before, the world melted away until it was just the two of them. They stayed there for nearly an hour, kissing and tossing around silly little jokes, until Safiya began to yawn. Before they left, they took a cute couple’s picture. Sebastian immediately set it to his lock screen and set another photo of Safiya that she had sent him the previous week as his home screen. He glanced over and was glad to see that she was doing the same thing with her own phone.

Sebastian helped her onto the motorcycle, and they made the hour and a half trip back to Pelican Town. Once his motorcycle was back in the garage, Sebastian walked Safiya back to her house. They stopped outside her door. Safiya began to take off his jacket.

“You don’t want to hold onto it?” he asked.

Safiya looked at him with wide eyes. “I- I can?”

Sebastian smiled. “Of course you can. I have another one, and I’ll live through the walk back to my house.”

Safiya grinned and stood on her toes to kiss him. “Thank you. But when it stops smelling like you, would you mind wearing it again for a few days to make it smell like you again?”

Sebastian laughed. “Isn’t that usually part of the deal when a guy gives his girlfriend a hoodie of his?”

“Well, I guess so, but I wanted to be sure.”

“I don’t mind, don’t worry.”

“Thank you, Sebastian. For everything. Tonight was absolutely perfect,” Safiya said, smiling up at him.

“Better than a brick wall?”

Safiya giggled. “Yes, better than a brick wall. I love you.”

“I love you too,” Sebastian said. He leaned down and kissed her one last time. She held onto him longer than he thought she would. “Good night, babe.”

“Good night.”

When Sebastian made it back to his room, he couldn’t stop smiling. His plan had gone perfectly. He silently cheered for himself. He looked at the photo on his lock screen and grinned, hugging the phone to his chest before setting it aside to fall into the best night’s sleep he had had in a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's finally here! I'm super proud of this chapter; I think I did a pretty good job on the kiss scene, considering I've never kissed anyone myself;;;
> 
> Also, while this won't be for a while, I'm planning on starting a new game in Stardew Valley eventually to romance Elliot. Sebastian's more my type, but I loved Elliot's heart events (I finally got the eight heart one over the weekend!) and I'm a bit of a sucker for hopeless romantic types. Would anyone be interested in an Elliot fic? I'll probably be done with this one by the time I get to starting an Elliot file, so it wouldn't be interrupting this one. Let me know if you would! :D
> 
> Anyway! I'm pretty happy today otherwise too. My grandparents were in town for a specialist, so they visited me on campus for the first time in my two and a half years being up here for college. It was really nice to get to see them again. I took them to my favorite Korean restaurant for dinner last night, and they took me to breakfast this morning before heading out. Though they were laughing about how I'm like a mini version of my grandpa when it comes to getting upset about the idiot drivers around here;; I also have a concert coming up this weekend! I'm seeing Fall Out Boy, and with the new song they just released I'm even more excited to go!
> 
> As always, thank you guys so much for all of your support! If you have any ideas, recommendations, or encouragement of any kind I'd love to hear it!


	10. Sebastian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian and Safiya take some more steps in their relationship.

Sebastian woke up feeling panicky and less rested than he had when he went to bed. He frantically searched for his phone. Once he found it on the floor beside his bed, he felt a tiny amount of his panic dissipate. It said it was 9:30 in the morning, so it wasn’t too far off from when he usually woke up. But he didn’t feel right.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, holding it through a five count. Today was going to be one of the days he had to stay in bed to ease himself through all of the anxiety attacks.

Once he worked himself through the initial wave, Sebastian remembered he had plans with Safiya later that day. He felt horrible about it, but he would have to cancel their plans. Having to do that made him feel even worse, but forcing himself out – even for Safiya – would be a bad idea.

**To: Saf**

**hey im really sorry but i can’t meet you for lunch today it’s not a good day today**

**From: Saf**

**It’s okay, don’t worry about that. What’s wrong?**

**To: Saf**

**really bad mental health day i’m staying in bed i can’t function on days like this even texting you is hard**

**From: Saf**

**Oh babe I’m so sorry…**

**From: Saf**

**I’ll stop texting you, if you’re doing better tomorrow let me know and we can worry about rescheduling then. I wish there was more I could do to help…**

**To: Saf**

**your being understanding is help enough :) usually only lasts a day i’ll talk to you tomorrow thank you for understanding**

While Safiya’s understanding helped, Sebastian knew it was going to be a rough day. He put his phone on the ground and slid it under his desk so he wouldn’t be bothered by it. He rolled over and hugged his knees to his chest, walking himself through his calming methods.

He didn’t know when exactly, but Sebastian drifted in and out of fitful sleep over the course of the day. Finally, late enough that everyone else in the house stopped making noise above him, he managed to fall asleep for the night. Sebastian woke up the next day feeling better mentally, though still tired. He lay staring at the ceiling for a few minutes before getting up to retrieve his phone.

Immediately, Sebastian began shivering. He slept only in sweats, and once out of his cocoon of blankets it was cold in his room. While he didn’t really mind the cold, no one liked leaving warm beds. Sebastian wrapped himself back up in his blankets and checked his phone. Thankfully, he didn’t have any worried messages from anyone. He did need to text Safiya again, though.

**To: Safiya**

**hey i just woke up, i’m feeling much better today**

**From: Safiya**

**I’m coming over**

Sebastian blinked in surprise when he saw her message. She sounded worried; she never typed like that and she was the type to always have at least two lines of text per message, even if it was a simple message. He felt bad for worrying her, but he was glad she was coming by.

Not long after that message arrived, a soft knock sounded at Sebastian’s door. He called out permission to enter, and Safiya came into the room. She shut the door behind her and moved to sit at the edge of the bed.

“How are you feeling?” she asked. Her concern was etched across her face, but she wasn’t moving closer. She almost seemed afraid to move closer, as if she didn’t want to risk anything.

Sebastian nodded and held his arms open. He shivered once in the time it took for Safiya to kick off her shoes and crawl up beside him. He wrapped her up in his arms, shrouding her in the blanket he was wrapped in, and he buried his face in the crook of her neck. He noticed that she smelled like the flowers she was growing, plus some fruit he couldn’t place. He quickly fell back into his negative mindset after noticing that, though.

“I hate days like that. They make me feel like… I don’t know, like I’m doing something wrong as a person,” he mumbled.

Safiya shifted so she could wrap her arm around him. Her hand against his bare side was freezing, but he barely even registered it. He folded further into her (which was admittedly difficult due to how much smaller than him she was, but he made it work).

“Don’t blame yourself for this. No one can be perfect. If you’re feeling bad about having to cancel, don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault. I completely understand, so you don’t have to worry about that. While I don’t get days like that, I do have anxiety problems myself so I know what it’s like. You remember how I was on the day of the valley fair?” Sebastian nodded without lifting his head. “It’s like that in my head most days. I’ve just gotten good at hiding it.”

Sebastian was silent for a bit, merely tightening his arms around her. He didn’t really know what to say in response to that, but he did appreciate that she understood what he was going through to a certain degree. Safiya moved and lifted his chin so he was looking her in the eyes. She smiled at him and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“How are you doing right now?” she asked.

Sebastian sighed and put his forehead against Safiya’s. “Better than yesterday, but still not really great. I still feel bad about cancelling yesterday. I think that’s what’s doing it.”

“We can still reschedule. What about this weekend so you’ve had time to get out of your funk?” Safiya suggested.

“That sounds good. Thank you for being so understanding. It really means a lot to me.”

“Of course.” Sebastian leaned his temple against Safiya’s, and she let out a small laugh. “Your face is all scratchy,” she said.

Sebastian laughed and nuzzled his cheek against hers, holding her in place to keep her from pulling away while she struggled. They dissolved into giggles, simply enjoying being around each other. He still didn’t know how she managed it, but he was extremely grateful that Safiya always managed to find a way to calm him down from a rare episode.

“I don’t have episodes like this a lot, but when I do I just need to be left alone to work myself through it. I really appreciate that you were so understanding of that, Saf,” he explained after a while of silence.

“Of course. I wanted nothing more than to come running, but I figured that if what you were going through was anything like my depressive episodes in college, just space and help once you’re starting to feel better would be a better idea. I’ll make sure to remember this for if-slash-when this happens again,” she replied. She moved to lean up and kiss him, smiling when she pulled back.

“I love you,” Sebastian whispered as he nuzzled back into her neck and inhaled her scent.

* * *

 

Snow had finally fallen in the valley, and the town was coated in a blanket. Sebastian was loving the cold. He liked snow and cold weather; he had even made a snow goon by the lake for the first time in a few years.

Safiya, on the other hand, was miserable. She kept telling him about how she was always frozen solid in this cold and how she couldn’t feel her hands or feet by the end of the day. She had explained to him that part of why she loved summer so much was because it was about the only time she wasn’t cold all the time. It hadn’t been as much of an issue around here because she was outside most of the time. But now that it was literally freezing all day every day, she just couldn’t get a break.

With all of her complaining about being cold all the time, Sebastian was surprised she hadn’t gotten sick yet. He was paying close attention to how she was doing, disguising his attempts at checking her temperature as kissing her forehead. While he wasn’t much of a cook himself, he always checked to be sure her fridge was stocked with at least ingredients to cook warm food when he went by her house. He had tried to start remembering the ingredients for her favorite dishes so he could make sure she had the ingredients to make one of those as well as something else. His mother had also started sending food along with him sometimes when he visited, and he was glad to see that she was eating it all when he checked.

It hadn’t taken long for Safiya to figure out that Sebastian was like a walking furnace under his sweatshirt, though, even if his hands or lower arms weren’t exactly that warm most of the time. She had taken to sneaking behind him and sticking her frozen hands down the back of his shirt if she could catch him with his back turned. Usually he could catch her in the act because of her barely concealed snickering, and he would quickly turn around to surprise her with a hug. She thought it was hilarious, though, and usually collapsed into giggles even if he caught her.

Safiya had been looking forward to the Festival of Ice since she had heard about it. She was excited to see all of the sculptures people had made, and she was determined to do well in the fishing contest despite her bad history with fishing. Sebastian had been doing his best to cheer her on while she practiced as the day drew nearer.

Now that it was the day of, he was excited and nervous both for her. Sebastian was standing off to the side of the festival, talking with Sam. It had been a while since they had hung out outside of band practice, so it was a nice change. Abigail was building snow goon after snow goon nearby with Vincent and Jas. There was still no sign of Safiya yet, though. Luckily, there was a while still until the fishing contest started.

Finally, she appeared, wearing a thick, puffy jacket and still shivering. Her bare hands were tucked under her arms for warmth. She walked up to Sebastian and Sam and shivered violently. Sam laughed, and she gave him a weak version of the stink eye.

“How are you guys fine like this? You just put on slightly thicker jackets than usual and are fine, yet here I am frozen solid in the thickest jacket and pants I own! It’s not fair,” she said.

Sebastian shrugged. “You know I’m always hot.”

“Yeah, well, I’m jealous. You know how I’m basically a walking ice cube.”

Sebastian pulled her close and began rubbing her arms to warm her up. She smiled and stood on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek. Sam began making a series of overly exaggerated gagging sounds, teasing them. Sebastian gave him a look, then smirked.

“You’re just jealous you’re still single,” he said smugly.

“Wha- Hey! No I’m not!”

“Sure, Sam,” Safiya replied, playfully rolling her eyes at him.

“Why not go talk to Penny? She’s right over there,” Sebastian suggested.

Sam sputtered for a moment, but he eventually hung his head and mumbled something about he should. He slowly and nervously made his way over to Penny and struck up a conversation. Sebastian smiled.

“Maybe that’ll finally kick him into action,” he said.

“They would be good together if he’d just say something. Penny’s far too shy to be the one to say anything first,” Safiya agreed.

“Well, anyway, how are you feeling about the contest?”

Safiya shrugged. “As ready as I’ll ever be. Honestly, as long as I don’t get dead last I won’t mind too much, but I’ve practiced so much lately that I’m really hoping I win.”

“You did seem to be doing much better last time I sat with you while you fished.”

“Thanks. I guess I’ll see soon.”

“Alright everyone, gather around for the fishing contest!” Lewis called.

“Or right now, I guess. Yoba, I’m starting to get nervous…” Safiya said.

“Don’t be. You’ll do great, I know it. Remember how much you’ve been practicing lately. That practice won’t be going to waste.”

“Thanks, babe. Wish me luck,” Safiya replied, standing on her toes to kiss him before she walked over to the lineup of contestants. She retrieved her pole from the pile as Lewis announced the rules, then chose a pond to fish from.

Once the time started, Safiya cast her line, determination and concentration written all across her face. She was doing pretty well; she managed to pull up most of the fish she hooked and was hooking fish at a decent pace. Sebastian cheered for her when she managed to pull up a fish she had been particularly struggling with. A smile appeared on her face for a moment, but she didn’t look away from the pond as she dumped her fish in her bucket and cast out again.

Sebastian glanced around at the other contestants. They were doing well, too. This would be a close finish when it ended. He pursed his lips and looked back at Safiya. She had just lost a fish. Frustration was coming off her in waves, but she was still determined to win.

The ending bell rang, and Safiya hesitantly reeled her line back in. She carried her bucket of catches over to Lewis to be scored, and Sebastian could see her worry in the way she was carrying herself. She fidgeted as Lewis tallied up everyone’s scores in his little notebook. Finally, Lewis moved to be more in the center of the crowd to announce the winners.

“Alright, everyone! This year’s first place winner is… Willy!”

Sebastian could see Safiya’s disappointment in her body language, but he could also tell she was still listening intently to Lewis. Lewis waited a moment for the cheering to end before he continued.

“In second place, Safiya!”

Sebastian cheered and clapped for her, and she looked at him with relief in her eyes and a smile on her face. She turned back to Lewis as he announced the final placements and handed Willy his prize. Once the ceremony was done, people began to clean up and leave. Safiya made her way to Sebastian after stopping to talk to Lewis for a moment.

“Hey, good job, Saf! I knew you could do it,” Sebastian said, opening his arms to her. She hugged him, but then sighed and pulled back, her hands resting on his waist. Sebastian put his hands on her shoulders, rubbing gently in what he hoped was a comforting way. “Hey, what’s wrong? You got second, and while it wasn’t exactly what you were hoping for, you did really well. Especially considering fishing can be hard for you sometimes.”

“Yeah, I know. But I asked Lewis if I could look at the results. I barely beat Pam, Seb. I only had, like, two more points than her. If I hadn’t lost all those fish, I might have been able to win…”

“Hey, don’t worry about that. Sure, you didn’t quite get where you wanted. But second place is still pretty damn good. Practice more over the next year, and I’m absolutely certain you’ll be able to get first then,” Sebastian replied.

Safiya gave him a small smile and hugged him again. “You always know just what to say,” she mumbled.

Sebastian chuckled. “Well, maybe not always, but I try, at least. Now, come on. Why don’t we head back to your house and you can slaughter me at that racing game you have?”

Safiya laughed softly and nodded. She grabbed his hand and led the way to her house, taking her bucket of fish with her so she could cook it up later. “Thank you, babe. You’re the best,” she said softly, rubbing circles on his knuckle with her thumb. She smiled up at him, and he couldn’t help but give her a stupid grin in return.

* * *

 

Sebastian was woken by the sound of a dull thump and someone muttering to themselves in his room. He was too tired and it was too quiet for him to be able to place the voice exactly, but he could tell it was a woman’s voice and that he recognized it. That was enough for him, though. He merely shifted and pulled his blankets tighter over his shoulder before allowing himself to drift back to sleep.

When he woke up a little while later, Sebastian saw something sitting on his desk that definitely hadn’t been there when he went to bed. His eyebrows furrowed, and he reached over to grab it without leaving his bed.

It was a handmade card. Black paper was decorated with metallic markers. He opened it and saw it was from Saf. He smiled. Maybe her coming in to leave it was what he had heard earlier.

_Happy birthday, babe! When you’re ready for the day, text me! I have a surprise for you for your birthday! Love, Saf_ ♡

Sebastian reached for his phone and checked the date. It really was his birthday. He had forgotten it was almost here.

Once he was dressed and had at least somewhat made up his bed, Sebastian sent Safiya a text. She responded to say she was in the middle of checking on her animals, but that she would be there soon. While he waited for her, he went upstairs to find Mom and Maru had put together an early lunch for them all out of his favorite foods. He smiled, thanking them, and sat down to eat.

As expected, Demetrius was nowhere to be seen. However, Sebastian was surprised to see his handwriting on the card for once. Maru explained that Evelyn had asked him for some help saving some flowers she was having trouble with, and that she had been insistent. Mom added that he had planned on being there if it wasn’t for that. Sebastian smiled to himself, dipping his head down to hide it. He wasn’t sure what the change was caused by, but he did appreciate it.

Just as he put down the frozen tear Maru had given him, the front door opened and shut. Safiya’s voice called from the front room, asking for a bit of help. Everyone moved to go help her, but when she saw Sebastian, she quickly turned away to hide whatever she was holding.

“Don’t look, Seb! I need to set everything up still! Maru, Robin, could you help me take this stuff down to his room?”

Sebastian was quickly ushered to another room before his mom and sister rushed back to Safiya. Whatever she had planned, they knew about it. He chuckled and crossed his arms, waiting for Safiya to come get him. About ten minutes later, she finally did, practically dragging him down to his room. He could see Maru and Mom trying to hide laughter as Safiya dragged him past them.

On his table, Safiya had set up a small spread of food and things to do. In the middle sat a small box tied with twine. She excitedly nudged him toward the couch and reached for the box, handing it to him as she sat beside him.

“You sure are excited about this,” Sebastian said as he turned the box over in his hands.

“Well, you told me once that your birthdays aren’t always that great. So, I wanted to do some stuff to make it so that it was better.”

Sebastian smiled and leaned over to kiss her. “You being here for me is all I needed. But I appreciate it. It means a lot to me that you put this much effort into all this just for me.”

“Of course I would! Now, open it!” she said, gesturing toward the box in his hands.

Sebastian tugged at the twine until it fell away from the box. He pulled the top off the box and found a necklace somewhat similar to the one he had made for her on her birthday, but with obsidian instead of amethyst and less ornate wire wrapping. Lifting it out of the box, he looked at Safiya. She smiled sweetly at him.

“We match now,” she said simply, reaching up to touch her own necklace.

Sebastian smiled and put the necklace on before reaching over to tug Safiya onto his lap. He kissed her, weaving his fingers with hers, and smiled at her when he pulled back. “Thank you. I love it,” he said softly.

Safiya grinned, looking pleased with herself. “I’m glad. Now, I brought some pumpkin soup and cake that I made for you, and then I brought some games or some movies. Which would you rather do first?” she asked.

“Mom and Maru made an early lunch for me, so I’m not really hungry right now. Let’s do a movie marathon for now.”

They set up a stack of movies to watch over the course of the day and got the first movie going before they settled onto the couch together. Sebastian, having laid back to use Safiya’s lap as a pillow again, smiled up at her. He reached up to pull her closer to his level, giving her a peck on the lips before settling back down again.

“I think that’s the only time you’ll ever be the one leaning down for a kiss,” he teased. She pouted, barely concealing a laugh. “Sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

After a while, Safiya made him move, claiming her legs were starting to fall asleep. They shifted so they were curled up together, legs tangled and fingers intertwined with a blanket draped across them both. They didn’t move from that position except to switch out the movies when they ended.

Late in the evening, Sebastian looked over to see that Safiya had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He smiled and checked the time. It was too late to send her home, even if he walked with her. She was too tired. Sebastian carefully shifted her so she wouldn’t fall when he moved. With a bit of work, he managed to untie her hair and let it down so it wouldn’t pull on her scalp while she slept. He got up and carefully gathered her in his arms, moving her to the bed.

He gently tucked her in, draping another blanket over her so she would be warm enough. Sebastian sat beside her a moment and smoothed some hair out of her face, a soft smile on his own. He got up to go sleep on the couch, but a tug on the hem of his shirt stopped him. He looked down to see Safiya looking at him through sleepy eyes, her hand loosely grasping his shirt.

She let her hand fall to the space beside her, patting it slowly and smiling at him. “A- Are you sure?” Sebastian asked. Safiya nodded again and slowly patted the bed again, this time shifting to lift the blankets a little.

After a moment’s hesitation, Sebastian crawled into bed beside her, pulling the blankets over himself while being careful not to take them all from Safiya. She sleepily smiled at him and scooted closer, tangling her legs with his and putting an arm over his side. She moved so that her head was tucked under his chin by his collarbone, tightening her grip on his waist momentarily before sighing and drifting back to sleep.

Sebastian smiled. He shifted so his arm was under her neck and draped his other arm over her hips, ever so slightly tightening his grip before he allowed himself to begin to drift off too. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, inhaling the scent of her hair. He smiled and fell asleep, feeling more comfortable and relaxed going to sleep than he had in a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's kinda short compared to the rest, but anything else and I felt like it'd take away from the effect of certain scenes. And adding another scene would both make this chapter too long and make the next one too short.
> 
> I'll be honest, guys, I'm kinda burning out on this pace. I'm pretty sure it's because of it being the end of the semester and I always burn out at the end of the semester, though. But just in case, if I don't update again until the second week of December (which I'm hoping I won't have to do!) it's because finals are killing me. I am going to finish this, though, so don't worry! I have plans for a more individual story once I finish following the game's romance plot, which I'm almost done with. I'm thinking this'll probably end up at about 15 chapters.
> 
> Also, I've decided that I'm definitely going to write an Elliot fic! I've been writing down ideas in my phone's notes as I get started with his file. His file's fic will be more of a story rather than scenes following the game like this one (or at least hopefully it will), and Samara, that file's character, is very different from Safiya here. (Can you tell what kind of names I like? //insert that one smiling with a sweat drop emoji;;; It's not just S names, but uncommon ones. Just ask me about the names of all my characters in other games I play;;;;) I'm thinking I'll start publishing that one in January if I start it over my winter break. Thank you to everyone who supported me in deciding whether I'd do this or not! :D!
> 
> Anyway, thank you guys so much for all of your support! It really means a lot to me! As always, if you guys have any questions/comments/suggestions/whatever I'd love to hear it! Thank you guys! :D


	11. Sebastian (Intermission)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, it's the little things.

Sebastian was startled awake by a sharp kick to his thigh. He looked over and saw that Safiya was writhing in her sleep, mumbling softly and her face contorted in what could be either pain or fear. Propping himself up on his elbow, he rubbed his eyes and checked Safiya’s clock. It was about 3 AM.

They had lost track of the time while spending time together at her house, and it had gotten late. She had invited him to stay the night with her, since it was so late and she had a big enough bed. He had been a bit embarrassed to have to strip to his underwear so he wouldn’t be uncomfortable, but Safiya was so tiny, there was nothing she could offer him that would fit. Sebastian had gotten over it quickly, though, and they fell asleep quickly once they had gone to bed.

Now, it seemed like Safiya wasn’t going to be getting a good night’s rest at all.

“No, please,” Safiya whimpered. Definitely a nightmare.

Sebastian sat up all the way, turning to face her. He smoothed some hair out of her face and carefully shook her shoulder. Her writhing stilled for a moment, but resumed quickly.

“Saf. Babe, wake up,” Sebastian whispered, shaking her a bit harder. She hadn’t told him anything about nightmares or night terrors, so he didn’t really know what to do to help. He did know she slept like a rock, though, so he doubted anything exceeding physically pushing her off the bed would work.

Having shaken all sleep from his mind by that point, Sebastian began to work his way through some possibilities. He could try harder to wake her up, but that might scare her further. He could try to go back to sleep, but then he would feel bad for leaving her in whatever was scaring her so much. He could stay awake until she woke up on her own to comfort her, but he had no idea when that might be.

As he thought about what to do, Sebastian found himself humming a song he hadn’t thought about in years. It was the lullaby his father had sung to him when he woke up from nightmares as a child, before he had left.

Safiya slowly began to stop moving, her face relaxed, and she stopped mumbling as he hummed. After a few moments of peace, she gasped and bolted upright, startling Sebastian. She breathed heavily, and her eyes flew around the room until they came to rest on Sebastian.

“Are you okay?” Sebastian asked.

“I… Yeah. It was a pretty bad nightmare, but I barely remember it already,” Safiya replied slowly.

“That’s good.”

“Yeah. Were you… Were you singing?”

Sebastian felt his cheeks and ears grow a little warmer. “Uh, humming. I wasn’t sure what to do to help since you wouldn’t wake up when I tried, and I ended up humming. And then you woke up.”

Safiya smiled. “There’s not really much you can do, but I appreciate it. You sounded nice, by the way.”

“I did?”

“Yeah. You have a nice voice. I've heard you singing along to TV show intros before. If you sing in that concert you have soon with Sam and Abbie, you’ll have all the ladies wanting you.”

Sebastian chuckled. “Thank you. There’s only one lady I need wanting me, though,” he said, tapping her on the nose. Safiya giggled.

“Well, it’s late, do you want to get back to sleep?”

“Yeah. Come here,” Sebastian replied, gesturing for Safiya to scoot closer as he laid back down.

Safiya smiled and laid down beside him, using his shoulder as a pillow and draping her arm across his stomach. Sebastian wrapped his arm around her shoulders, reaching down to pull the blanket back up. They were silent for a moment, but he was too awake now to be able to sleep, so he ended up humming the lullaby again. He felt Safiya move to look at him, and he barely could make out her smiling at him.

"Love you," she whispered, craning her neck to give him a tiny kiss. Sebastian smiled.

"Love you too."

Safiya nuzzled into his shoulder and moved what tiny bit closer she still could, throwing her leg over his. Sebastian tightened his arm around her shoulder, a small smile on his face. They drifted off to sleep comfortably, with no bad dreams plaguing them for the rest of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So, here's a little domestic drabble to tide you guys over until I can get the next chapter up. I know I'm a little late compared to the time I usually post this, but I have a major presentation tomorrow that I was working on with my lab partners during the time I usually use to get this posted. It's my hell week this week (don't even get me started about what yesterday was like), so this is all I was able to get together. And next week, I have a final every day Monday through Thursday. Unfortunately, that means I won't be able to get anything together to post next week. After that, though, I have an entire month off! So I'll definitely be able to finish writing everything up over break, but I do plan on keeping to my schedule after next week so I may be continuing to post for a bit into the new year.
> 
> By the way, this is the song I was imagining Sebastian humming as I wrote this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qq8ZcIfLDUo  
> I'm a giant nerd and adore Dragon Age, and I've always loved this song. The tune just came to me as I was writing. The lyrics aren't exactly the most cheerful thing for a child to be hearing when they're scared, but I like them anyway. I always sing along when I get to this scene in the game.  
> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> As always, thank you guys so much for all of your support! It means a lot to me! :D If you have any recommendations/suggestions/encouragement of any kind I'd love to hear it!


	12. Sebastian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some might say this was too fast. But they were happy, so it didn’t matter.

Sebastian was curled up against the wall of Pam’s bus, Safiya tucked neatly into his side and under his arm as she slept. He watched the lights pass as they drove past the suburbs surrounding the city. Safiya sighed in her sleep, nuzzling into his side. Sebastian looked down and smiled, gently rubbing her arm.

They were on their way to Zuzu for a concert. It wasn’t just any concert, though.

It was _hi_ s concert. His and Sam and Abbie’s.

Sam had gotten to inviting Safiya before Sebastian had. He still wasn’t sure how exactly, but Sebastian was definitely disappointed he hadn’t been the one to invite her. Either way, he was so excited to finally get to share his music with her. Especially on the day of their very first concert, where he had snuck in a special song to the setlist.

Safiya had always wanted to hear their music, but Sebastian wanted to keep it a surprise for her. Not even just the special song, but the whole of their music. He wanted her first experience with their music to be when it was perfect, not when they would be struggling with writing new songs and making a lot of mistakes. But they were finally ready for the concert, so she would finally get to hear their music.

The bus pulled up to the venue, a bar with a stage in its outdoor seating in back. Sebastian, Sam, and Abbie were herded into a green room, but everyone else from Pelican Town was made to wait inside the bar itself. While he wanted Safiya to be there with him to calm his nerves, Sebastian also wasn’t sure if her present would be helpful this time. In fact, he almost thought it would be worse. He might ruin the surprise he had so carefully planned if she was there. He took off his sweatshirt, revealing a fitted black v-neck. He knew it would be too hot on stage for him to keep it on.

About an hour later, an employee came in to say they were ready for them to go up onto the stage. Sebastian let Abbie and Sam lead, hoping to keep a bit of the focus off of him. He settled himself behind his keyboard, coaxing a few chords from it while Sam checked his guitar’s tuning and Abbie settled herself behind the drum set. Finally, Sam tapped on the mic, drawing the attention to the crowd.

Sebastian squinted through the blinding stage lights into the crowd. Standing below the stage, directly in front of him, was Safiya, grinning at him. He smiled at her and gave her a small wave. As she waved back, he heard a few girls he could barely make out behind her start to squeal about “he waved at me ohmagawd did you see that he’s so cute!” Safiya glanced behind her, then looked back at Sebastian and rolled her eyes. He laughed, shaking his head a little.

Before he knew it, Sam was striking his pre-song pose, and Sebastian had to tear his gaze away from Safiya and ready himself for his first few notes. They had taken Safiya’s suggestion of experimental rock and run with it. He and Sam had written most of the songs together, with Abbie mostly just tossing in her opinion here and there.

But Sebastian had written one song by himself. It was for the very end of the show.

Sebastian played their music, allowing himself to get into the music. His eyes shut as he played, losing himself in it. When he opened his eyes again, Safiya was still standing right in front of him, swaying and bobbing her head. She smiled at him and blew him a kiss. He grinned, lowering his head a little to acknowledge her, before he let his eyes slip closed again.

Though he was enjoying himself, Sebastian was getting tired. It was hot under those lights, and he could feel sweat dripping down the back of his neck. Their setlist wasn’t too long, but it felt a lot longer under those hot lights and with everyone watching.

Finally, they reached the stop point. It was right before their last song. Sebastian’s surprise. He had to bite his tongue to hide his smirk.

“Thank you guys so much for being out here tonight. This has been an amazing night, right?!” Sam shouted into his mic. The crowd cheered.

Sebastian wanted to scan the crowd as he smiled, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from Safiya in front of him. Even drenched in sweat from dancing, she was the most beautiful girl in the crowd.

“Ah, man, I’m so happy we could be out here tonight. Unfortunately, this next song is gonna be our last of the night,” Sam continued. People in the crowd let out sounds of discontent. “I know, it sucks. But this song is a very special song for a very special lady out in the crowd tonight.”

The crowd murmured, and Safiya tilted her head to the side, raising her eyebrow at Sebastian. He merely smirked at her as he readjusted his mic stand. She narrowed her eyes, giving him a quizzical look.

“Alright, I hope you guys are ready!” Sam cried. He set up the song with a few heavy chords. Sebastian took a deep breath and leaned toward his mic.

He poured himself into those lyrics, singing with everything he had. He harmonized with Sam for a moment before it was his turn to sing by himself. Sebastian smiled as he sang about his true emotions, making eye contact with Safiya as he did. He watched as realization made its way across her face, and she gave him a brilliant smile.

The song wasn’t Sam’s doing. It was written solely by Sebastian, all for Safiya. He watched as she swayed to the music, still smiling. When the song ended, she clapped excitedly, leading the crowd in enthusiastic applause.

“Thank you guys so much! Good night!” Sam shouted, pumping his fist into the air.

They walked off stage and headed back toward the green room. Sebastian heard a commotion in the crowd behind him. A moment later, someone threw themselves onto his back, startling him and throwing him off balance. He craned his neck to look behind him, finding Safiya there. He grinned and shifted to face her. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him, smiling, and Sebastian’s hands found their way to her waist.

Sebastian chuckled when she pulled back and grinned at him. “I take it you liked your song?” he asked.

“More like I loved it! Babe, you’re amazing. I love you so much,” she replied, dazzling him with a smile.

“I love you too,” he replied, grinning at her.

Sebastian grabbed Safiya’s hand and pulled her along with him to the green room where Abbie and Sam already were. When he heard some girls nearby being catty about Safiya, he let go of his hand and wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her possessively to his side as he pierced them with a glare. He looked down at Safiya and noticed a troubled look on her face. He gave her a small smile as he brought her into the green room.

“I’m sorry about that, babe. I dunno what was up with those girls,” Sebastian apologized.

Safiya shrugged. “I did tell you that you’d have people all over you if you sang at your concert,” she replied. “I dunno why they apparently thought you were theirs, though. They don’t even know you.”

Sebastian shrugged. “I don’t need them.”

“They were talking about you being their ‘boy’ for, like, three quarters of the concert. It was weird.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “They’re some of those weird obsessed groupie types. I’ve heard of them. Just ignore them.”

“Hey, Sebastian! That was amazing! I think we’ll make it!” Sam cried from further inside the green room.

“Yeah, did you hear the crowd? They loved us!” Abbie added.

“Yeah, they did. We might sell out of the demo tapes we brought,” Sebastian replied, slinging his arm around Safiya’s shoulder.

And that was exactly what happened. The crowd from Pelican Town hung around for another hour or so at the bar while Robin, Jodi, and Caroline handled demo tape sales. Sebastian and Safiya had claimed a booth in the corner to themselves, preferring each other’s company over attention from any of the band’s newfound fans. They allowed Sam and Abbie to soak up all of the attention.

Just before they left, Sebastian and Safiya spotted a gaggle of girls making their way to their booth. “Those are the girls who were being all weird the whole concert,” Safiya whispered to Sebastian.

He smirked. “I have an idea,” he whispered back. Pulling her feet up onto his lap, Sebastian draped his arm around Safiya’s shoulders and pulled her closer to him.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“You’ll see. Play along.”

The girls arrived at the booth, smiling widely. Their eyes flashed over Safiya, draped all over Sebastian, and their smiles faltered momentarily.

“Can I help you?” she asked. Sebastian had to bite his cheek to keep from laughing.

“We wanted to meet the whole band, and when Sebastian wasn’t with the rest at the meet and greet, we came looking!” the girl in the middle said.

“I’m not much for being social. Just wanted a bit of quiet is all,” Sebastian said.

“Oh, sorry! We’ll be super quick, promise!” the girl on the right said.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sebastian saw Safiya open her mouth, but the girl in the middle cut her off. “I’m Stephanie!” she said, sharply elbowing the girl on the left.

“Oh, uh, I’m Mia,” she said. Stephanie elbowed the girl on the right next, even though she was already opening her mouth. A squawk of surprise escaped the right girl’s mouth, and she shot Stephanie a dirty look and rubbed her side before speaking.

“I’m Tiffany!”

“Nice to meet you three,” Sebastian said. Safiya smiled prettily and encircled her arms around his neck.

“Yeah, nice to meet you!” she said. The girls looked at Safiya in surprise, almost as if they had forgotten she was there.

“Well, apparently you know my name, but have you guys met Safiya yet?” Sebastian asked.

The girls shook their head and mumbled greetings. “Well, we just wanted to meet you! Sam and Abbie were super cool, but you were, like, our _favorite_ part of the concert!” Stephanie said.

“Oh, well, thanks.”

Stephanie stepped forward and leaned onto the table, obviously trying to display her cleavage in her extremely low-cut shirt. “We mean it! You were our _favorite_ part! Did you see us in the crowd?”

“No, I don’t think I did,” Sebastian replied, unfazed by her actions. Safiya let out a tiny sigh of exasperation, and he had to agree (silently).

Stephanie straightened and crossed her arms, pouting. “That’s too bad. We were way up in front, right in front of you. Well, except for this one idiot girl who wouldn’t move for us,” she huffed.

Sebastian knit his eyebrows and turned to look at Safiya, who rolled her eyes at him. “Um, do you maybe want to take that back?” he said.

Stephanie and Tiffany scoffed. “Why should we? We were trying to see you, and she kept blocking us,” Tiffany huffed.

Safiya snorted. “Because that ‘idiot girl’ you were talking about is my fiancée Safiya here. She said you were being very rude to her and weird about me,” Sebastian replied.

The blood drained from Stephanie and Tiffany’s faces, and they began to stammer apologies. Mia, behind them, stifled laughter.

“Look, it really is nice to meet you, but you guys need to learn some concert etiquette. You can’t be screaming in people’s ears and shoving them around. Everyone’s here to have fun, right?” Sebastian said. The girls nodded. “Good. I wouldn’t mind meeting you guys again if we do another concert out here, but just remember to be nice to everyone. Okay?”

The girls nodded again, and all three turned to leave. Safiya called out to Mia, but when all three stopped and turned, she asked for just Mia to come back.

“You were pretty cool. I heard you trying to tell them to stop. Thank you for that,” she said.

Mia shrugged and rubbed her arm. “Eh, it was nothing. My friends can be jerks sometimes. Someone’s gotta try to keep them in line.”

“But you didn’t have to. Seriously, thanks,” Safiya replied, smiling.

Mia shrugged and smiled at her. Sebastian noticed a demo tape in her hand.

“Hey, were Sam and Abbie signing demo tapes at the meet and greet or whatever they’re calling it?” he asked.

“Huh? Oh, this? Yeah, they were. We were kinda hoping you might be willing to sign ours too, but I understand if you want to be left alone,” Mia replied.

“I’ll sign yours for you. As thanks for sticking up for my fiancée when I couldn’t,” Sebastian replied, smiling.

“Wow, really? Thank you!”

“Here, babe, I’ll go get you a Sharpie,” Safiya said, disentangling herself from him. She was back a moment later with a marker, and Sebastian signed the case for Mia.

“Thank you so much!” Mia said, grinning as she walked away. Sebastian and Safiya smiled at her as she left, then laughed at her friends’ shocked faces.

“There were always people like them at concerts when I used to go a lot in college. Do you think maybe her friends learned something tonight?” Safiya asked once they were out of earshot.

“I think so. Hey, I think I hear Sam calling for everyone from home. Pam’s probably heading out soon. Let’s go,” Sebastian said.

They got up to leave, but halfway to the bus, Safiya tugged on Sebastian’s sleeve a little. “Hey, what was that about me being your fiancée during that whole bit?” she asked. He could see a bit of a blush making its way onto her cheeks.

“I figured they might listen better if you were my fiancée than if I just said you were my girlfriend.”

“That’s all?”

“Well, I do have to admit that the thought of spending my life with you sounds pretty damn nice,” Sebastian whispered, leaning down to kiss her. Safiya smiled, and they made their way back to the bus.

The ride back was much less of a big deal than the drive up was. Most people who went were nodding off in their seats, including Safiya, who fell asleep against Sebastian’s shoulder. Once they made it back to Pelican Town, Sebastian asked his mom to wait up for him while he walked Safiya back to her house. He found her in the kitchen when he got back, sipping a mug of tea.

“What did you need, Sebby?” Mom asked.

“Well, uh… I’ve been thinking, and I think I wouldn’t mind staying in Pelican Town any more,” Sebastian said slowly.

Mom smiled. “That’s good to hear! What brought this on?”

“Um… Actually, I’ve been thinking about, um… Well, I don’t plan on staying in your basement my whole life. I didn’t want to stay this long to begin with, but it’s turned out to be a good thing I did. Because if I had left sooner, it would have made it so that the best thing to ever happen to me wouldn’t have happened.”

“And what would that be, Sebby?” Mom asked. Sebastian got the feeling she knew exactly what he meant and just wanted to hear him say it out loud.

“Safiya. I… I think I want to marry her, Mom.”

Mom grinned. “I’m so happy for you, Sebby!”

Sebastian gave his mom a weak smile. “You don’t think it’s too soon?”

“Well, you guys are moving kinda fast, but if you’re happy then I think you should do it. I can’t remember when the last time I saw you so happy was. It’s almost as if you two were made for each other,” Mom replied.

A tiny smile made its way to Sebastian’s face. “Sometimes I think so too. So, uh… How exactly do I go about getting her a mermaid’s pendant?” he asked timidly.

Mom gave him a sad smile. “There’s a mariner who makes them and shows up at the beach sometimes, but he only ever comes around when it rains. You’ll have to wait until spring to get one for her,” she replied.

Sebastian sighed. “Spring, huh? Well, it’s fine. We’re happy like this too. Thanks, Mom. Oh, and you can’t say a thing about this conversation to Saf, okay? I know you two are close too.”

“I promise. Now, it’s way past my bedtime. I’m heading to bed. Good night, Sebby,” Mom replied. She put her mug in the sink, patting Sebastian on the head as she passed him. Sebastian sat and thought for a while longer before heading to bed himself.

* * *

 

Sebastian and his family were gathered around their table in the town square, getting ready for the gift exchange portion of the Feast of the Winter Star. Safiya still hadn’t made an appearance, but she had texted Sebastian to let him know she would be a little late. She was having trouble trying to figure out how to wrap the gift she had gotten for her secret partner.

Lewis announced the exchange was about to begin, which meant Safiya had finally arrived. Sebastian watched as she brought Sam a pizza box with a bow on it, stifling a laugh at the image. He gave Emily the bolt of cloth he had gotten her and looked up to see Safiya surprised by Leah giving her a homemade pie. Willie brought over a platter of assorted types of sashimi for him as Safiya made her way over to him.

Safiya smiled at him when she reached him. “I almost didn’t expect to be getting anything from anyone,” she said.

“Why not? The whole town participates in the exchange.”

Safiya shrugged. “I don’t really know. I just wasn’t expecting anything.”

“Well, even if you didn’t get anything, I have something for you for later. You wouldn’t have been going home empty handed,” Sebastian replied, smiling at her.

“I have something for you too! I’ll give it to you later, though.”

Sebastian pulled out a chair for Safiya at his family’s table. They had invited her to sit with them so she wouldn’t be by herself for the feast. Together, they shared a feast of ham, fresh vegetables, homemade bread, and pie.

After everyone had eaten, the crowd began to disperse. Safiya pulled Sebastian toward her house, saying she had left her present for him there. They curled up together on her couch, each with their own gifts for the other on their laps. They looked at each other, smiling, and traded boxes.

“Are you ready?” Safiya asked.

“Open it.”

They opened their gifts, and Safiya gasped. She pulled out a pair of small stuffed dogs. Sebastian had asked Emily to help him make them in the image of her dogs she had left behind with her parents, using a photo he had sent to himself when she had asked him to check something on her phone for her. Emily had been happy to help and put the project ahead of others she had been working on, saying she had been trying to think of something she could do for her as thanks for everything she had done for the town so far.

Safiya hugged the stuffed dogs to her chest, grinning at Sebastian. “They look like my Jack and Jill! It must have been so expensive to commission these. Thank you so much!” she said, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.

“Not really. Emily only charged me a base amount, since she had been wanting to do something for you too.”

“I’ll have to tell her thank you too. Now, why don’t you finish opening yours?”

Sebastian pulled back the flaps on the box, pushing tissue paper to the side. He lifted out a folded black material. Allowing it to unfold, Sebastian realized it was a scarf. He smiled and wrapped it around his neck. It was extremely soft, and the knit kept in warmth well.

“Do you like it?” Safiya asked.

“I do. Thanks, Saf,” he replied, leaning over to kiss her. Safiya smiled.

“I’m glad you do! I made it myself for you.”

Sebastian smiled. “That was so thoughtful of you. I know I’ll get a lot of use out of it.”

“I hope so! I noticed your neck is always cold even if the rest of you is super warm, so I thought maybe I could help you out a little.”

“And you did. Thank you.”

“Of course! Well, do you have some time? I thought maybe we could watch some movies before you had to go home,” Safiya said.

“I have some time. Let’s find something on TV so we don’t have to get up,” Sebastian replied, picking up the TV remote from the table beside the couch.

Safiya grinned and scooted closer to him, shoving the wrapping onto the floor in the process. She curled up against his side and draped a blanket over their laps, putting her head against his shoulder and smiling. She patted the stuffed dogs sitting in her lap, as well as Adonis, who had jumped up onto the couch beside her. He boofed at them, his tail thumping against the couch.

“I brought something for you, too, Adonis. Here you go, boy,” Sebastian said, handing the dog a thick bone. Adonis licked his hand before taking the bone, curling up against Safiya’s other side and gnawing on the bone. They laughed, and Sebastian wrapped his arm around Safiya’s shoulder.

“I think this is the best Winter Star I’ve had yet. Thank you, Sebastian,” Safiya said. Sebastian smiled.

“Me too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter's kinda late in the day. I was struggling with this chapter for some reason... Our wifi at my house sucks and tanks after like 6 PM, which was three hours ago my time... There was another scene I was going to include, but I didn't want to put it off when you guys were so nice about me needing next week off!
> 
> Safiya's dogs are based upon my own, including their names! Oh and the scene with the girls at the concert is based upon some obnoxious girls who kept screeching at the top of their lungs behind my friend and I when we saw Fall Out Boy last month. One of them kept trying to shush the rest who were all literally screeching... Oh well. The concerts I usually go to don't have that going on, thankfully. I just wanted to see them when they were near me since I LOVED them when I was younger. (And now too, of course, but not as much as before.)
> 
> As always, thank you guys so much for everything! If you have any comments/recommendations/whatever I'd love to hear them! You guys are the best! :D!!


	13. Safiya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was the beginning of the rest of their lives. And it was magical.

The day after the Feast of the Winter Star, Safiya woke up earlier than usual. She left Sebastian still asleep in her bed – he had left a pair of pajama pants and a couple changes of clothes in a drawer she had cleaned out for him after the first night he spent the night – and made her way outside, Adonis close by her side. She rested her hand on his head as they walked. They stopped on her porch, and Safiya sat with her feet dangling off the edge of the porch. Adonis laid down beside her, resting his head in her lap and looking up at her.

Safiya smiled down at her faithful dog and dug in her pocket. She pulled out a tiny, delicate blue conch shell on a chain and stared down at it. This was the mermaid pendant she had been told was used to propose to the one you loved and wanted to spend the rest of your life with if you lived in the valley. The moment she had found out about it, she began to carefully plan her days, making sure she would make it down to the beach on a rainy day before the season changed.

To be honest, she still wasn’t sure that what had happened was really real.

The old mariner who had sold her the pendant… He seemed kind of ethereal and translucent as she first looked at him, and she thought she saw some sort of will-o’-the-wisp spirits floating about him, but after she had rubbed her eyes to clear away some rainwater, he seemed solid and the wisps were gone. As he spoke, his voice had a bit of a ghostly echo to it, and she thought she had heard other voices – the most beautiful woman’s voice she had ever heard, a happy child’s voice, a teenaged boy’s musical voice – but then she felt bubbles in her ears and popped her ears, and the ghostly echo and other voices were gone. His touch, as she passed him the gold and he gently wrapped her hand around the pendant, was both ice cold and searing hot at the same time. She started, surprised by the sound of Willy pounding on Elliot’s door, but when she turned back to look at where he had been standing right in front of her, he was just gone. No footsteps, no noises of someone’s retreat, but there was a depression in the sand where he had been standing, and she could still feel the sensation of his strange temperature on her hands. And, of course, she was 1000g poorer and now had a mermaid’s pendant in her hands.

Safiya had clenched the pendant to her chest with both hands, smiled, and bowed low in thanks in the direction the mariner had been. She had safely stowed it in her jacket pocket and gone to speak with Willy. When she asked him about the mariner, he merely smiled, promising he would tell her the truth of the mariner only when she proposed. Of course, that had her growing flustered, and she made him swear not to say anything to anyone that she wanted to propose to Sebastian, but he had kept his word. He may have given her a pointed look every time he saw her, but he never _said_ anything else.

Of course, Safiya knew about the valley’s hidden magics. She was a student of it, thanks to Wizard’s teachings, and she knew Linus’ best-kept secret. She was almost done helping the Junimos, she had seen fairies blessing her crops when she woke up late in the night, and she had spotted a witch flying high above her farm on the night of a full moon. And she couldn’t forget about all those monsters crawling around the mine and the cavern in the desert. This valley hadn’t been corrupted with the nastiness of the “developed world,” and you could feel it.

But there was no explanation for the mariner, at least not that she had yet come across.

Safiya smiled and put the pendant back in her pocket, where it had been safely kept since she bought it. She was afraid Sebastian would find it if she hid it somewhere in her house, since he practically lived there too, and her winter jacket was puffy enough to hide its shape when she hugged her. But maybe it was finally time.

She knew Sebastian had gone to speak to Robin about getting his hands on a mermaid’s pendant. No, Robin hadn’t said anything, and Maru and Demetrius didn’t have any clue. Actually, her fairy friends had overheard – they were everywhere, even if you couldn’t see them – and relayed the message to her. She had asked them countless times to stop leaving her messages of what they had learned from all their eavesdropping. She didn’t mind if they continued – it was their favorite pastime, of course, she couldn’t deprive them of that – but she didn’t deserve to know everyone’s business. Sure, she knew they were just trying to help her be a good friend, but that wasn’t the way to do it.

Safiya hadn’t wanted to know that Abbie had written in her diary that she was trying to figure out if she liked Safiya or was just projecting her well wishes for her and Sebastian. (She was projecting, it turned out.) She hadn’t wanted to know that Harvey had a little bit of a crush on Maru, but was afraid he was too old for her to say anything to her. She hadn’t wanted to know that Pam and Shane cried themselves to sleep, whether they were in drunken stupors or if they were sober. She hadn’t wanted to know that Elliot hated every word he wrote and had punched a dent into his desk due to all of his frustration. Everyone had their secrets, and Safiya didn’t want to know them unless they came to her to confide in her.

But she still woke up to messages on tiny scrolls of paper, tucked into one of the scrolling details on the little tiara she wore every day and left on her bedside table overnight. She knew it was the fairies because it was written in the language of the Junimos – the only written language any of the magic folk had, aside from learning human written language. If she blinked fast enough, what looked like English to her would transform into the Junimo’s language. Safiya liked speaking to them. Their language, made up of chirrups and birdsong-like noises, was amazing to listen to. But she didn’t want to take part in their eavesdropping and gossip.

Safiya shook her head, remembering the note that had told her about Sebastian’s conversation with Robin about finding a mermaid pendant. Though she was disappointed not to have found out on her own, and that they had broken their promise to stop telling her others’ business _again,_ it eased her thoughts when she thought back on buying the mermaid pendant. From there, it had just turned into a matter of deciding when she wanted to propose.

After yesterday, though, Safiya thought she was finally ready. She carefully tucked the pendant into her pocket and set to her chores – thankfully, it was easier in winter with only her animals to care for. She did miss nurturing her plants from the ground up, but it was a well-deserved break. When she got back into her house, Sebastian was still asleep, but he had rolled over and reached an arm across the bed, as if searching for her. His face was screwed up in his sleep, and she could only imagine it was because he was cold. Without her there to pin them underneath herself and keep them from getting pulled too far down, he had kicked all the blankets off himself. Quickly stoking the fire, she moved toward the bed. She smiled and pulled the blankets up over him, pressing a gentle kiss to his temple before moving toward her kitchen.

Today was going to be absolutely perfect. She was going to make it that way. To start: a nice, hot, home-cooked breakfast. She made fresh poppyseed muffins and maple bars, along with a fruit salad and hash browns. Just as she was plating the food, sneaking Adonis little nibbles of the fruit, Safiya heard noises behind her. She turned, smiling, to see Sebastian shuffling into her kitchen, her comforter wrapped around him. He made his way over to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

“Morning, babe. Did you sleep well?” she asked, handing him a plate. She giggled when he snaked a hand out of his cocoon to take it to the table. He settled himself at the table, shedding the comforter over the back of the chair, before he answered.

“Yeah. I woke up when you usually get up and you were already gone, though. Must have fallen back to sleep after that. Did you sleep okay?”

“Oh, I slept fine. Just woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep for that last 30 minutes, so I went ahead and just started my chores early,” Safiya replied, settling herself across from him at the table.

“Alright then. Thanks for breakfast, by the way. It smells amazing.”

Safiya smiled, then dug into her own food. They ate in a comfortable silence, both sneaking scraps to Adonis under the table every few minutes. When they finished, their silence continued as they cleaned up together, Sebastian still in only his pajama pants.

Once the cleaning was done, Safiya rubbed Sebastian’s bare back as she turned to face him. “Hey, get dressed. I want to show you something, but we have to take a little bit of a walk to get there.”

Sebastian did as she asked, and she led him through town to the sea. She led him down the pier to the spot where they had their first “real” conversation, back when she had accidentally startled him into dropping his cigarettes into the sea. He chuckled when he realized where she had brought him.

“I like to think of this as where we really met for the first time.”

“Not my house?”

“No, that was just an introduction. It felt too formal and uncomfortable. This is where we _met,_ where we started to become friends.”

“Well, my mom did kinda force me into interacting with you when I was trying to avoid having to meet you.”

“Yeah, I figured as much. It’s fine, though. Meeting new people sucks.”

“Well, it does, but I’m glad I met you,” Sebastian replied, smiling down at her.

Safiya grinned. “Me too.”

“So, what was it you wanted to show me?”

“Well, more like tell you, but I wanted it to be here.” Safiya reached up and placed her hand against Sebastian’s face. “I, uh, learned a new trick from Wizard. Replaying memories I have of others for them. Do you mind if I do it with you?”

“I trust you.”

Safiya smiled and began the little picture show she had been putting together in her mind. “I’ll be honest, at first you kinda intimidated me. I know now it was because you were kinda anxious to meet a new person, but I hope I did okay in trying to understand as I got to know you.”

Sebastian nodded, his eyes having glazed over as he experienced the memories from her perspective. “You did.”

Safiya smiled and skipped forward to once they were friends. “I had a lot of fun hanging out with you as friends, but then I started to notice that I liked you as more than a friend. Well, I, uh, had always thought you were pretty cool, but you know what I mean, right?”

“Yeah, I do. It was kinda the same for me.”

She skipped forward to the summer in her memories, to the first time she saw his motorcycle, their game nights, the luau, even when he had nursed her back to health after her mishap in the mines. “Eventually, it got to a point where I couldn’t even tell any more if we were only hanging out as friends, or if it was turning into a casual dating thing. After Abbie told me that you liked me too, I kinda fell apart because I didn’t know what to do. So that’s when the thing in the mine happened, and I was finally able to tell.” She skipped again, to her perspective of when she brought him the bouquet. “So, that’s when I decided to step forward and risk it all. And it turned out to be the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I couldn’t have asked for a better boyfriend, a better beginning to our relationship.”

Sebastian merely smiled, so Safiya moved forward, skipping to her birthday. “You made the best birthday I’ve ever had happen. I tried to return the favor for yours,” she said, interrupting her own thoughts to show a flash of her panicked prepping for his birthday, “and I’m hoping it was good.”

“It was perfect,” Sebastian said, causing Safiya to smile.

“You’ve helped me more than I can imagine. The day of the fair, I really don’t know what I would have done without you. And that’s just an obvious example. Your support in what I do, your help when I get frustrated trying to fish, even just the good morning texts you send whenever you wake up if you didn’t stay the night mean so much to me,” Safiya said, her voice trembling as she showed him how she felt when he did those things for her.

Sebastian blinked and focused on her face, reaching up to wipe away the tear threatening to roll down her cheek. He smiled at her and leaned down to kiss her before allowing her to continue what she had been showing him.

Safiya moved on to the next part. “Every holiday, every festival with you has been the best I’ve ever had, and it means so much to me. Even if you don’t think you did much that was too special or out of the ordinary, it really did – does – mean a lot to me. I can’t thank you enough for any of it,” she said, showing him flashes of all the times they’ve spent time together at festivals.

“That night when you took me to your special place, and you kissed me for the first time? That was the most magical night of my life. And I’m basically a mage in training,” she continued, laughing at her own joke as she showed him what that night had been like through her eyes. She moved on to times that weren’t so great, and other times that were wonderful. “Through all the times I’ve helped you and tried to be there for you when you needed it, I still feel like I haven’t done enough for you. You wrote a fucking song for me. How can I ever top that?”

“Saf…” Sebastian began. Safiya withdrew her hand, pulling him out of her memories. She shook her head, sniffling, and smiled up at him.

“I’m okay. There’s a point to all this, and it’s not me getting emotional,” she said, wiping her eyes. Sebastian hugged her tight, then pulled back a bit so he could look at her.

“It’s okay. Take all the time you need.”

Safiya took a deep breath and grabbed Sebastian’s hands. “Sebastian Villaflor, I love you so much. More than I could ever put into words. I can’t imagine my life without you, and honestly, I don’t want that to ever happen. So…” she said, trailing off. She sank to her knee and pulled the mermaid pendant out of her pocket, offering it to him in her open palm. “Will you marry me?”

“Holy shit, Safiya, yes!” Sebastian cried, pulling her up and into his arms.

His kiss was passionate and full of emotion. Safiya felt tears run down her cheeks, and Sebastian pulled back long enough only to wipe away her tears, grinning at her. Finally, she pushed herself away so she could actually give him the pendant, afraid she would drop it into the ocean otherwise. She stood on her toes to drape it over his head, and she straightened it against his chest. He reached up to cover her hand with his own and smiled at her. Behind him, Safiya could see Willy standing outside his house, silently cheering. He must have come out when she was in the process of saying everything.

Safiya laughed, and Sebastian turned to see what she was looking at. He laughed when he saw how excited Willy was for them and hugged her to his side. They waved at him, and he shouted congratulations at them. This led to Elliot poking his head out of his cabin to see what the commotion was and, once he realized what was going on, shouted his own congratulations at them.

Safiya and Sebastian agreed they needed to go tell Robin as soon as possible, so they rushed up the mountain to find her behind her shop counter as usual. While she regarded them with confusion and concern at first, once they told her, she began to shriek with excitement and happiness. This led to Maru and Demetrius coming into the room, concerned what all the yelling was about.

“My baby is getting married!” Robin said, practically shouting in her excitement.

Maru and even Demetrius smiled and congratulated them, both excited for them. Maru pulled everyone into a group hug. Demetrius even clapped Sebastian on the back, a little excessively hard at first, but he apologized and was more gentle after that.

“Have you two decided when you want the wedding to be?” Robin asked.

Safiya and Sebastian looked at each other. “I’m not sure. I like the idea of a summer wedding, but it’ll be so hot, and that’s so far away. There is the anniversary of when we first met on the first of the new year, but that’s just so short notice.”

“Oh, on the year of when you first met would be absolutely lovely! Spring starts early here, too, so you might even be able to get a fresh spring with flowers and grass and everything! Of course, we can help plan, and I’m sure the rest of the town would be more than willing to help too!” Robin said. Maru nodded in agreement.

“It’s up to you, of course, but I think that’d be a wonderful idea too,” Demetrius added.

Sebastian looked at Safiya. “Is that okay with you?”

“Yeah, of course. As long as my family doesn’t have anywhere else to be. Gus has that extra room, right? I should be able to get my parents and grandpa out here. They’d probably get all weird about staying in my house, that’s why they haven’t come to visit yet.”

“They were telling me about that last time you had me speak with them. I’m sure Gus would be more than happy to help you out.”

“Okay, good! We should go call them then, Seb. Robin, Maru, Demetrius, we’ve gotta get going. But we can be back before too much longer to start all the planning.”

They walked back to Safiya’s house, hand in hand. As they walked, Sebastian said he would take care of most of the planning, so she could worry about getting her family here and situated on such short notice. Once they arrived, they set up a video chat on her computer with her parents and grandpa all together. Her grandpa had been visiting her parents for Winter Star. They all greeted each other in a chorus.

“How was your Winter Star, my dear?” Safiya’s father Cairo asked.

“It was great, dad. How was yours? Oh, and how are my little guys doing?”

Safiya’s mom held up one little dog, and her grandfather held up the other. She smiled and cooed over them, laughing when their ears pricked up at the sound of her voice. “Our Winter Star was good. Just a quiet family one, and we watched a few movies,” her mother Melanie replied once the dogs were settled off camera.

“That’s good!”

“Have you been able to figure out fishing any better?” her grandfather Nasir asked.

“A little bit. I have better luck when this guy comes with me,” Safiya said, nudging Sebastian and smiling at him.

“So, what was so important you absolutely had to video chat with us right this second?” her dad asked.

Safiya and Sebastian looked at each other, giggling. “We’re engaged!” they said in unison.

Safiya’s family laughed and hugged each other. “So you finally popped the question, my boy?” Safiya’s dad asked Sebastian.

Safiya looked at Sebastian in confusion and noticed a slight flush on his face. “I, uh, asked your parents for permission last time you left me to talk to them. I had planned on asking you myself next year when I could get my hands on a mermaid pendant.”

“So, you didn’t ask her?” her dad asked.

Sebastian turned to the screen and shook his head. “Saf asked me.”

Safiya’s grandfather let out a loud cackle. “I knew that girl had it in her!”

“Either way, we’re so happy for you two!” her mom said.

“When do you guys think the wedding will be?” her dad asked.

Safiya and Sebastian glanced at each other. “Well…” Safiya began.

“We told my mom, and she got all excited about having it on the anniversary of when we met. So, the first of the new year,” Sebastian explained.

Safiya’s family looked at each other. “That’s pretty soon,” her mom said.

“We know. Everyone around town will be willing to do whenever we want, so we wanted to know if you could make it if it’s so soon, or if you want us to plan it for later so it won’t be so short notice,” Safiya explained.

“Well, it just so happens that I got two weeks off for the holidays, so I won’t have any work conflicts. I’ll probably have to head back after the ceremony though,” her dad replied.

“And since I work from home, I can just bring my computer and be fine otherwise,” her mom said.

“The fish can wait for me to get back!” her grandfather added.

Safiya and Sebastian smiled. “I’ll go tell Mom that we can plan for the first, then. I think Sam’s dad is getting back by then, too, so he should be able to come too,” Sebastian said.

“Oh, good! I can’t wait to meet him!” Safiya replied.

“Tell your mom thank you for all the hard work she’ll be doing planning! Oh, and pass on that we’re excited to meet her!” Safiya’s dad said.

“Of course.”

Sebastian left to pass on the good news, leaving Safiya to work out the details of her family’s trip with them. She told them about the train, and how there was a route between the city they lived in and Pelican Town. She helped them to buy tickets, explaining how the train company wanted them to declare their dogs, then told them what sort of things to pack for the weather. She promised to organize a place for them to stay. With that, they hung up, going their separate ways to take care of their separate chores.

The next few days passed in a flash, the town abuzz with activity. Word had made its way through the town, and everyone was excited. Everyone was helping in any way they could. Sebastian, true to his word, handled most of the planning for the event itself with his family so Safiya could set her family up in her spare room. He kept her in the loop, of course, by asking her opinion on choices they had to make and telling her about progress that had been made. Most of the planning was occurring at her house, anyway, thanks to Robin having to work on expanding the master bedroom for Sebastian to have a space of his own in the house. Aside from that, though, Safiya mostly just was needed to meet up with Emily to have her dress made.

She had chosen a simple design so it wouldn’t take too long. The only embellishments they had chosen were lace cap sleeves and a short, simple lace train. With Emily’s skill, the dress was finished quickly, with a day to spare. Safiya’s family had arrived two days after they called them, absolutely overjoyed for the new development in their family.

Though they had spoken with Sebastian several times over the phone or on video chat, they were thrilled to meet him in person and welcome him into their family. They were just as thrilled to meet Sebastian’s family, and they hit it off right away with Robin in the same way Safiya had. Safiya could tell that her family was likely to keep in close contact with Sebastian’s after this. They were also thrilled to see the effort she had put into developing her grandpa’s land, and they made her show them how to do her chores. They said they wanted to better understand the lifestyle she had chosen for herself, so she gladly taught them the basics. By the time the wedding itself arrived, her dad was joking about starting his own farm.

The ceremony itself, though short, was sweet, and Sebastian and his family had made the town square look gorgeous. Sebastian was in a suit that was such a dark purple it almost looked black, and Robin had given him her mother’s wedding ring to give to Safiya, along with a chain of matching white gold to string the ring on so she could be sure not to lose it when she was working in her fields. Safiya had made a simple silver band for Sebastian. Everyone had dressed up in their Sunday best, and Kent, who Safiya had just met that morning, had even broken out his dress uniform. Lewis, who was officiating, barely kept it together through the ceremony.

After the ceremony, the town participated in a party that went well into the afternoon, with live music from Sam, Sebastian, and Abbie’s band for part of the night, games for the little ones, home cooked food from Gus’ kitchen, and fresh sweets from Evelyn’s oven. Adonis and Safiya’s parents’ dogs, Jack and Jill, ran around the square, playing with each other and anyone who would stop to pet them. Safiya and Sebastian danced together with other couples from in town. They were happy to see that Sam had even managed to work up the courage to ask Penny to dance.

Finally, everything ended, and Safiya and Sebastian changed into their usual clothes to see her family off. They and Sebastian’s family watched until the train was no longer visible in the tunnel. They left, heading for Robin’s to start packing Sebastian’s things to move them to Safiya’s house – now his as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like once the proposal itself happened in this chapter, the quality of it went downhill. :/ I dunno. It's probably just the whole "you are your own worst critic" thing, but I'm super proud of up to when they start announcing the engagement, and after that it just feels meh to me. I had planned on having this finished last night so I could post it this morning, but I wasn't able to do that.
> 
> But now that this has happened, we're getting to the story part I've had planned instead of just me rewriting scenes from the game! :D I hope you guys liked this chapter, I wrote it more in the style those chapters will be to give you guys a bit of a taste of my writing style in that sort of story rather than just scenes. Most of the final chapters will be from Safiya's perspective, too!
> 
> Oh, that reminds me, remember how at one point I said I like to headcanon Sebastian as being half Filipino, since we don't know what his birth dad looked like? Well, I happen to have a friend who's lived in the Philippines for the past few years (she's moving back here soon, and I'll get to see her in person for the first time in like six years!). So, I kinda stalked her Facebook for last names I liked, and Villaflor was the one I liked best with his first name! It's a little embarrassing to admit that;;; but it's the truth! That's part of why I didn't finish this chapter last night like I planned, I was trying to find a name for Sebastian I liked. (That and trying to name Safiya's family, since they'll be involved in later chapters too.)
> 
> As always, thank you guys so much for all of your support! If you have any sort of comments/ideas/recommendations, please let me know! I love to hear from you guys! :D


	14. Safiya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New beginnings lead to new discoveries. But old memories can haunt you.

Safiya and Sebastian carried the last of the boxes into their house the day after the wedding. They had finally finished moving Sebastian’s things from his parents’ house to Safiya’s – their – house. Smiling at each other, they began sorting his things into where they would belong before putting them away, using movies as background noise. Most of his things went into their bedroom or his new office on the other side of their bedroom, but he had brought a few things for the kitchen and some things that would go with Safiya’s for the TV in the living room. And, on top of that, he had brought some furniture with him as a wedding gift from his family.

Using the new furniture, they arranged the spare room upstairs into a sort of sitting room. While they didn’t expect to use the room much, they wanted to have more space for anyone who would visit. They had a lot of friends in town who were likely to drop in from time to time, and Safiya’s family had promised to visit more often than they had in her first year in the Valley.

Together, they set up his office and his section of the bedroom and bathroom. Sebastian had teased her for the effort it took to clear some space for him in the medicine cabinet closet in her bathroom – she kept a lot of medical supplies on hand, and she had a variety of bottles and tubs of skin products – but when they finished for the day and his hands were raw and scratched from all of the work and cutting open boxes, he appreciated her variety of creams and lotions.

Finally, they finished putting his things away. They were tired, but it was too early to go to bed quite yet. So, they collapsed together onto the couch to watch some movies until it was a more decent hour for bed.

As the first movie ended, Safiya reached up and stroked the side of Sebastian’s face. “Babe, your face feels really dry,” she said, sitting up so she could look at him.

Sebastian made a noncommittal noise. “I probably just need to shave,” he replied, gently tugging at her arm to pull her back to his side.

Safiya reached up with her other hand. “No, your skin is dry. It was probably how dry the air was all winter that did it. Listen, I’ve got this stuff you just put on for like 10 minutes and then peel it off, and it really helps. It’ll get rid of any dead skin from how dry yours is, and it’ll moisturize your skin. Will you let me put it on you?”

Sebastian grimaced. “It sounds uncomfortable.”

“I’ll be honest, it’s not the best feeling in the world when it gets dry and ready to be taken off. But it feels so much better when it’s gone. And if you really don’t like it I won’t make you do it again, but I really do think it’ll help you out.”

He grumbled, but he allowed Safiya to pull him up and take him to the bathroom. She had him sit on the counter while she dug out the tub she was looking for. Once she found it, she climbed up next to him to kneel beside him, where she could reach his face without trouble.

“Here, smell this,” Safiya said, unscrewing the cap and holding it to his nose.

“That’s, uh, really silver,” he said as he leaned closer.

“Yeah, it looks kinda funny once it’s on but it really feels nice,” Safiya replied, laughing a little. “What do you think?”

“It smells nice, at least.”

“Yeah, most of what you smell is just the faint scent of this while it’s on. So, do you think you’ll be able to deal?”

Sebastian screwed up his face a little as he thought. “Fine, but only if you do it with me.”

“Oh, I was planning on it, don’t worry! Now, here, let’s start getting this on.”

Safiya put the mask on herself, peering into the mirror to make sure she didn’t put it on too thick. She had Sebastian follow her lead, giggling as he watched some of the mask drip off his fingers and back into the tub with a weird look on his face. He began to slather it on, muttering to himself, and let out a tiny gasp when he realized how cold it was. It was beginning to drip down his cheeks, he was using so much.

“Oh, babe, you’re putting it on too thick. It’ll never dry like it has to like that.”

“I thought I was doing thin enough.”

“Here, can I help?”

Sebastian shrugged and turned toward her, holding out his hand that was still dripping with the mask to her. She scooped what was left off his fingers and saved a few drips from falling onto his clothes. She carefully smoothed it across his skin, trying to avoid looking at his smile. His smile was too infectious to her, and it would be uncomfortable for her to start smiling now that her mask was beginning to dry.

“Okay, I need you to stop smiling. You’re making me smile and it feels weird, and if you don’t stop I’ll put it on over your smile and you’ll be stuck like that until it dries. And that takes like ten minutes,” she said, pursing her lips to try to keep from smiling.

Sebastian managed to stop after a minute, but she noticed a blush making its way up his neck and onto his face. She had to try even harder to keep from smiling now.

“Now you’re blushing,” she teased.

“I can’t help it. You’re staring right at me, and I love your face. Plus last time you were staring so intently at me and doing stuff to my face was before we started dating,” he explained, trying to keep from moving as much as possible as he spoke so she could keep at it.

“Oh, I remember that. That was when you first mentioned taking me for a ride, and you got grease on your face. I was a little embarrassed to be so close to you when I didn’t know you too well yet, but I had already started to develop a crush on you by then so…” Safiya said, glad her mask was hiding the blush she could feel rising on her own cheeks.

“Aw, you had a crush on me? That’s so embarrassing,” Sebastian teased.

“Sebastian, we are married,” Safiya replied, poking his cheek before she jumped down to wash off her hands.

“Still!”

“ _Anyway,_ we just have to wait until it dries. About ten minutes or so. We can go pick another movie while we wait if you want,” Safiya said, gesturing for him to wash his hands as he got off the counter.

They spent the rest of the time they had to wait picking a new movie and setting it up. When they went back to peel the masks off, Safiya couldn’t help but giggle at Sebastian’s trouble peeling off. She ended up helping him pull up edges so he could take it off on his own. Once he had it off, he reached up to feel his skin.

“Holy shit, Saf. I see what you meant,” he said. Safiya reached over to put her hand on his cheek, smiling at him. His skin was a lot less rough and felt healthier.

“See? You don’t have to keep doing it if you hated it, but the results are nice, right?”

“Yeah, I think I get it now. I don’t think I’ll be up for it a lot, but maybe sometimes.”

“I use this or something else like this once a week. How does that sound?”

Sebastian hummed as he thought for a moment. “Maybe every other week I’ll join you.”

Safiya smiled and nodded. After changing into pajamas, they moved back to the couch and curled up together, with Safiya tucked neatly under Sebastian’s arm and a blanket draped over their laps. They ended up falling asleep there halfway through the movie, waking up as it ended. Leaning against each other for support, they moved to their bed and curled up together under the covers, draping their blanket over the comforter for extra warmth.

* * *

 

Safiya found herself growing used to having someone else living with her quickly. She hadn’t shared space with anyone since she moved out of her parents’ home to move to the city for college, but it wasn’t hard at all to adjust again. Sebastian spent the first few days adjusting too, setting up his spaces in the house and organizing places he had made a mess of when moving in. Once he finished that, though, he began asking about ways he could help her around the farm.

She introduced Sebastian to harvesting crops first, then to how he could help her water her crops that she didn’t use sprinklers with. He had taken it upon himself to start helping take care of Adonis right away, claiming it was his first step in trying to help run the farm. As he adjusted to her schedule of being up earlier, he began to help her with her morning chores so she could have easier workdays. Two days a week, he visited with his family and Sam and Abbie, so he didn’t help on those, but he helped most of the other days of the week if he didn’t have a contract of his own to do. Honestly, she hadn’t even expected him to offer to help with her work at all. Safiya loved the days where she woke up to find him already out in her fields, wearing her straw hat to protect his pale skin from the sun and a pair of gloves she had bought for him when he started to show interest in her work. She would wade through her crops to get to him, greeting him with a good morning kiss and an offer to take over from wherever he had gotten to.

However, she loved the days when she woke up to find him still in bed beside her even more. She loved to wake up and be able to curl into his shoulder for a few more minutes before she had to be up. Feeling his arm tighten around her in those few minutes was one of the best feelings in the world. Everything in her life just felt perfect.

Two weeks after the wedding, on a day Sebastian was visiting with his mom, Safiya found herself sitting at the edge of the southernmost pond on her land. A crumpled letter sat in the dirt by her side as she traced her feet through the water. She reached over and grabbed the letter, smoothing it out in her lap to read it again.

The letter was from someone she had hoped to never hear from again, and it had made all the bad memories she thought she had finally put behind her come back to the forefront of her mind. She wasn’t going to respond, but it still hurt. It was an invitation to some party for staff, past and present, of her old department at Joja, along with a letter from some person she had at one time been kind of friends with before everything went down the drain.

At first, she had been angry. How dare they contact her when she had made it clear she never wanted to see or hear from them ever again? And how dare they search out her home just to taunt her? She didn’t even know how they managed to find the address, because she was sure the only time she had ever mentioned the farm at work before she quit was when she had been on the phone with her mom about it during break, but that was one time and she had been certain she was alone in the bathroom during that call. Then, the sadness and dread set in, breaking down the happiness she had so carefully worked to build over her time here. She could build the happiness back up, of course, but who knew how long that would take.

That clairvoyant from the fair had been right about her past coming back to haunt her. Safiya hoped that this would be the last contact from them and they would leave her alone from now on, but she had a sinking feeling in her gut that there would be more. Old memories began to flood past the mental gates she had put up, and they began to rise higher and higher. She shuddered, fighting through to wall those memories back up again.

She knew she shouldn’t bottle up what was bothering her, but she had always felt weird about sharing what was troubling her with other people. She hated feeling like she was bothering people about her personal problems, and she had had too many people in the past tell her that she really was a bother when she turned to them for support. Not her family, of course, but people she had thought were friends. People who she had supported, but then didn’t want to support her in return. What was the term her grandfather had used for people like them?

Fair weather friends, that was it.

Safiya shook her head, forcing herself out of her negative mindset. Her friends here weren’t like that. Not Sam or Abbie or Willie or Linus, not any of them. Especially not her new family. Not Robin, not Maru, not Demetrius. Definitely not Sebastian.

She could trust him with absolutely everything.

Right?

Safiya shook herself. Hard. Of course she could trust Sebastian! He was her husband, the love of her life, her best friend. Why had she even questioned whether she could trust him? That little voice in the back of her head was just so cruel sometimes, making her think such awful things. She wished it would just go away.

But, of course, that little voice only came into being to remind her that nothing is sunshine and rainbows in her life. People she had loved had betrayed her before, and that little voice was just trying to make sure she wouldn’t be as broken as last time it had happened.

Safiya groaned, rubbing her eyes with her fists and then pressing on her temples. No, that voice was there to put doubt in her mind and lead to her own downfall. She didn’t have to listen to that negativity. Listening to it would only cause what it said to come true. Picking up the letter again, Safiya allowed herself one more time reading it before she would burn it.

_Dearest Safiya,_

_I hope this letter finds you well! We all miss you here in the research and development department and hope that your little farm is coming along. What was its name again, Skyhold Farm? Such a charming name._

_Included is an invitation for the development department’s annual ball. I am sure you remember that it is for past employees as well as current. You have about two months to decide if you would like to come. Of course, we will understand if you are too busy with your little farm to attend. The gang would like to hear from you, and I’m sure they would be overjoyed to see you if you decide to come. We were hoping to hear updates by now, but since there’s been no contact, everyone has been speculating whether you’ve been able to make it or not. I do hope the positive ideas are the correct ones. It would be so sad to hear you haven’t been able to make it when you were so set on this being your new life. Miles has been asking if I have heard anything from you, and I know Angela has been wondering in her own quiet way. They were asking if you have been able to keep up with your practice at playing pool. And the rest would love to hear about your little farm!_

_Everyone has forgiven you for your little display, if you are worried about that. In fact, I believe the majority of the department has completely forgotten about it by now. It’s just been so long for those who didn’t know you. Oh, and there still have been no sightings of that man you claimed was trying to follow you home. No one else has made any similar claims, either, so I am sure it will be completely safe for you to come back if you wish to attend the department ball._

_Do respond soon, as we would all love to hear from you. We would be absolutely thrilled to see you at the ball, as well. Oh, I am not sure if you noticed while looking at the envelope, but I have moved to head of the department. Miles has your old position of head researcher now, and Angela is his assistant. And I’m sure you remember James? He is my assistant now. Please be sure to send responses to the department head’s box instead of my old one. Some new researcher has my old box now, and I’m sure you remember how new employees tend to muck up mail if they receive someone else’s letter by accident._

_Kisses,_

_Darcy_

Safiya felt nearly sick to her stomach reading the letter. That was just like Darcy to sugarcoat everything in pretty words and still manage to sound so condescending and snide. And she had figured Miles would try to take her job when she left. She knew he had been after it for a long time and had been pissed when she got it as a relatively new hire compared to the extra year he had been with the company. But Darcy didn’t have to rub it in her face like that. Same thing with James and Angela. And bringing up all the bad things again? Awful. She still thought James was the one who had been doing the following, but of course no one believed her, even still. They had given him a promotion, for Yoba’s sake! Once again, they were just trying to get a rise out of her and make her own image look even worse than it already did.

Taking a deep breath, Safiya closed her eyes and began repeating her old mantra for when she was going into work at Joja still. “No one gives a shit about them. Just keep doing your job well. No one gives a shit about them. Just keep doing your job well. No one gives a shit about them. Just keep doing your job well…”

Once she finally felt calm enough again, Safiya stood and walked back to her house. She made a beeline for the fireplace, loading it with wood, tinder, and kindling. She threw a match in, then another. Safiya watched as the flames grew higher and higher, until the fireplace was roaring and she had to step back from the heat.

She crumpled the letter into ball again and wound up to chuck it into the fire. The invitation, sitting on the ground by her feet, would be next, followed by the envelope itself. Safiya wanted nothing to do with anything that any of them had touched.

There she stood, poised to throw the offending paper to its doom, for she didn’t even know how long. If she could only bring herself to _move._

Finally, she moved, but not in the way she had wanted. Instead of throwing the letter into the fireplace, her arm dropped, grip on the letter loosening until it fell to the ground and bounced a few inches away from her. Safiya sank to the ground, shoulders trembling. A sob escaped her lips, and it was all over from there. She cried hard, in a way she hadn’t since before moving to Pelican Town. Sobs wracked her frame, and she buried her face in her hands. One hand migrated to her hair, pulling through it and tearing it out of her bun. Her tiara fell from her head, bouncing once before rolling to a stop in front of her. In frustration, she let out a strangled shriek and shoved the offending pieces of paper as far away from herself as she could.

She heard the sound of Adonis scratching at the front door over her sobs. Surely he could hear her pathetic wailing and wanted to comfort her, but she just wasn’t in the mood to go let him in. Actually, it was more like she didn’t even have the energy to go to the door and bring him in. Even if she wanted to move, she wouldn’t be able to. She was going to be rooted to that spot until either she slept right there for a little bit or someone else moved her so she didn’t have to under her own power.

Somewhere behind her, she heard the twittering birdsong-like sounds of the fairies’ language. A slightly deeper fairy voice responded after a brief pause, and she heard the twinkling sound that announced their arrival or departure. She was too upset to be able to focus on what they had said and understand them, so she ignored them.

A few minutes later, the twinkling sound returned. Safiya still hadn’t regained control over her emotions, though, and continued to cry. Just as she was trying (and failing) to quiet herself, the doorknob of the front door jiggled and turned. The door clicked open, and she heard the sound of footsteps and dog nails on the hardwood floor of her living room. She bit her tongue to try to bite back the sounds of her tears and prayed that whoever it was would leave her alone.

A deep voice spoke to someone else, and Adonis boofed in response. There was a pause, with no noise at all coming from her living room.

“Babe, I’m home! Are you here?” Sebastian’s voice called.

Safiya hiccupped, then reprimanded herself for making noise. She curled into herself, pressing one hand to her face and using her other arm to cover her head. There was a long silence, so she began to hope that he thought she wasn’t home still. But then, his footsteps began to make their way toward their bedroom.

The footsteps stopped when he rounded the bed and came to a point where he would be able to see her. He was silent for what seemed like an eternity. Tears threatened to fall again, and Safiya felt herself start to shake. A sob escaped her lips, and that was when time seemed to move again.

Quick footsteps made their way over to her. She felt more than heard the hard thump of Sebastian falling to his knees beside her, heard more than felt him shift so he was sitting with her between the V of his legs. Then, a gentle hand was on her shoulder, ever so slightly pulling so she would turn to look at him. At first, she curled further into herself, but as the hand started to lift away, she turned the way he had silently been asking her to.

She started to lean in toward him, to rest her head on his shoulder, but Sebastian caught her chin and made her look up at him. She was sure she looked disgusting; her face tended to get blotchy and a little swollen when she cried, and she had been crying long enough that there were definitely tear stains on her cheeks (more than likely made worse by the fact that she had accidentally gotten dirt on her face during her chores but hadn’t bothered to wash off before checking her letters). She knew she had made a rat’s nest of her hair, too. All in all, she was a dumpster fire of a mess.

“You’re home early,” she croaked. It was all she could bring herself to say.

Sebastian gave her a small smile and moved to cup her face. He wiped away her fresh tears with his thumbs, gently caressing her jawline. He reached up and gently tucked some of her hair out of her face, then let both his hands drop to weave his fingers with hers.

“I suddenly got a feeling like I needed to come check on you, so I came back early. Mom didn’t mind. I’ve never seen you like this before. What’s got you so upset?” he asked softly.

Safiya looked down, chewing on her lip. “I don’t want to start crying again,” she mumbled. She looked up at Sebastian through her bangs and saw him giving her a sad look.

“Okay. You don’t have to tell me until you’re ready, but I want to help. How can I help you right now?”

Safiya merely shrugged, sniffing. Sebastian looked at her for a minute, then stood and pulled her up with him. He pulled her to his side, supporting her as he took her to the bathroom. Lifting her to sit on the counter, he pulled out a few washcloths from the linen closet and put them beside her, along with her face wash and brush.

He pulled the tie out of her hair and brushed it out for her. Thankfully, even with all the mess she had made out of her hair, it hadn’t gotten too tangled and he didn’t have to fight through many knots. Sebastian tied her hair back in a low ponytail and wiped her face off with a damp washcloth. He then gently washed her face with another washcloth. Once that was done, he sent her to change into some pajamas.

When she emerged from her closet, fluffy pajamas on, Sebastian was putting some finishing touches on a blanket and pillow nest in front of the TV. He had pushed the couch back a bit to make some room, then used just about all the pillows and blankets in the house to build a nest for her. Adonis was already curled up in the center, and when he spotted her he boofed at her, his tail thumping against an overstuffed pillow.

Safiya climbed into the pile beside Adonis, stroking her dog’s head as she settled in. Sebastian disappeared into the kitchen, returning with a steaming mug of cocoa a few minutes later. He handed it to her, smiling silently, and moved to the TV to set up a movie. Once the movie was in the player, he grabbed the remote and sat beside Safiya, pulling her to his side and hitting play.

“I don’t really know what else I can do to help, but I hope that this can distract you enough for now,” he mumbled into her hair.

Safiya sipped her cocoa, then put it on the table in front of them. She draped her legs over his and leaned her temple against his, smiling. He wove his fingers with hers, rubbing her knuckle with his thumb.

“This helps. Thank you, babe. I’ll… I’ll tell you tomorrow. I’m not ready to talk about it today.”

“Okay. Whenever you’re ready. I’m here for you, whenever you need it. And so is everyone else, you know.”

Safiya smiled, nuzzling her cheek into Sebastian’s shoulder. Her smile grew when she felt him press a kiss to her hair.

“Thank you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! I'm so sorry I didn't update last week without any warning. I was struggling pretty badly with this chapter. I had a different idea for where this was going to go, but that idea died and this is what replaced it. Of course, I have a plan for where this can go now! But it was a kinda sudden change, so that (combined with family stuff because of the holidays) is why I didn't update last week.
> 
> Honestly, even I was cringing when I got to the letter. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to include it, but since I haven't told you guys much about why Saf hates the city and feels weird about some stuff I figured it would be a good place to start for a window into her past. I think there's going to be about three more chapters? Maybe? I don't think it'll go past 20 chapters, it just depends on how long it takes for my idea to flesh out. If I were to keep following the timeline of my file of her but with a more realistic year, there'd need to be a miracle of time somehow since apparently Sebastian wanted to get busy fast and I had both kids by fall of year two xD
> 
> As always, thank you guys so much for all of your support (and for understanding when I've had to skip posting)! It really does mean a lot to me! :D If you have any comments/ideas/recommendations of any kind I would love to hear them!


	15. Safiya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Safiya turns to a friend for help.

When Safiya woke up the day after her meltdown, she found Sebastian in his office, absorbed in a contract he had received the previous night. He moved to get up and come to her when he noticed she was awake, already starting to ask what had upset her, but she held up a hand to stop him. He slowly sank into the chair, watching her with a confused look on his face.

“I know you’re worried, and I’m sorry for it, but I’m not quite ready to talk about it yet. Tonight, I promise. And if I break my promise, you’re allowed to yell at me,” she joked weakly.

A troubled look crossed Sebastian’s face, but he slowly nodded and turned back to his computer. Safiya got up and crossed the room to stand by his side for a moment. She still wasn’t too familiar with how programming and coding worked, but she knew he worked hard at his job and did a good job of it. Leaning against the back of his chair, she draped her arms around his neck and rested her chin on his shoulder to watch for a moment.

Sebastian worked for another minute before taking a deep breath and letting it out in a huff. “Family owned bakery in Zuzu asked me to update their code because customers were complaining their site was confusing to navigate. Whoever they hired to write it in the first place did an awful job,” he said, saving his progress and clicking out of the editing window.

To Safiya, it looked like the website had been pasted together by some Frankenstein wannabe. Some parts of the site were easily recognizable as being a user interface from big time websites, and others looked like products of some coding for kids learning program. Many of the colors didn’t work together, either, so it was almost an offense to the eyes. She let out a small sound of disgust, and Sebastian chuckled. Safiya smiled when she felt it rumble through his chest.

“Yeah, it’s not too good on the eyes, but luckily the code itself isn’t too bad. It’ll mostly just be making it look better and be easier to navigate. Shouldn’t be too hard of a job.”

Safiya’s eyes drifted to the top of the screen, but Sebastian had scrolled down to look at the quick links at the bottom of the page. She reached over and nudged his hand out of the way to scroll back up to see the name of the bakery. In the top left of the page’s header was a beautiful logo for a bakery named Little Shepherd Bakery and Café. Her brow furrowed, and she straightened to go grab her record of orders.

“What’s up, Saf?” Sebastian called after her.

“The name looks familiar. I’m just checking something,” she said over her shoulder. Lewis still handled her shipments and orders for her, simply giving her the receipts he got from orders so she could keep a record of her profits. Flipping through the binder, Safiya moved back to Sebastian’s desk. Finally, she found what she was looking for. That bakery was the major purchaser of the milk and eggs she produced on her farm, and they purchased a large amount of her fruits and wheat as well. The rest went to other restaurants in the area. Safiya let out a small laugh.

“What is it?” Sebastian asked.

“This bakery buys a good portion of my products. Look on their site, do they list where they get their ingredients from? Sometimes small places like this do that if they’re supporting small-time farmers.”

Sebastian did as she asked, and sure enough, listed at the top of their list of suppliers was Skyhold Farm, along with Mayor Lewis’ work phone number.

“Wow. What a small world. You had no idea?” Sebastian asked.

“Nope. I still let Lewis handle most of my shipping. I don’t pay too much attention to where my products are going when I go through my records. And look, it seems like they’ve spread the word about my products, because most of my other purchasers are restaurants local to the same area as them.”

“Really? That’s amazing!”

“Yeah. And look, I remember the names of these other three farms they’ve got on their site. They’re all in the area between this town and Zuzu.”

“They wanted to check in with me later today, to ask about a time estimate for the job. I can tell them they’re supporting my wonderful wife’s farm when they call.”

“Sure. That reminds me, can you ask if they’re willing to include logos of their suppliers on their website? Leah designed me a logo a while back, but I’ve never had a chance to use it yet. And I know these other farms have logos.”

“Yeah, I can do that. Give me the design, and I can get it ready to be used.”

Safiya gingerly pulled another sheet from her record book. The logo was of the outline of a cow, a chicken standing on its head and a pile of fruit and vegetables at the cow’s feet. Leah had turned the cow’s markings into the name of the farm, her signature artfully placed by the fruit and vegetables. Sebastian scanned the image into his computer, then carefully handed it back to Safiya so she could put it safely back with her records.

“I’m going to go fishing today. Willy was going to show me a trick he learned from a fisherman from the Gotoro Empire. When I get back, I’ll tell you what was upsetting me yesterday, okay?” Sebastian nodded, smiling at her as she pressed a quick kiss to his cheek.

Safiya quickly took care of her chores for the day so as to keep from making Willy wait too long for her. She arrived at the pier to find him standing at the edge, smoking his pipe and watching the water in the distance. They sat together at the edge of the pier, moving their lures through the water to draw the attention of more fish. A comfortable silence enveloped them for nearly an hour.

“Are you ready for me to tell you about the legend behind the mermaid’s pendant, lass?” Willy asked, breaking the silence with his gravelly but gentle voice.

“Yes, I am,” she replied. Honestly, she had forgotten about his promise to tell her since the wedding. Her life had been a flurry of new things since then, and it had slipped her mind.

Willy reeled in his line, setting his pole on the pier beside him. He shifted to better face her as he told her the legend. Safiya copied his actions, ready to listen intently.

* * *

 

_In a village along the coast, humans and merfolk lived in peace. They didn’t interact with each other much, but they were comfortable sharing that section of the sea. Mer children would occasionally come to play with human children along the beaches, both species’ parents keeping a watchful eye from a respectful distance. Once they grew up, they would stop spending time together, instead looking back fondly on their memories of playing in the shallow water with their friends from the other species._

_The merfolk had no qualms with the humans fishing as part of their food source, as long as they didn’t overfish and cause the merfolk to starve. Both species worked together to ensure they wouldn’t overfish. Only the fishermen regularly interacted with the merfolk after childhood because of this._

_One day, a local teen determined to become a fisherman like his grandfather went along on a fishing trip to learn more. He and two other men were to take a boat into deeper water and remain there for a few days, fishing. The locals expected the town weather to remain calm enough for such a trip for about a week longer, before the stormy season came and they couldn’t safely fish from their boats any longer._

_But they were wrong. A storm rolled in quickly one night, and the sea became so choppy it was a sailor’s worst nightmare. The boat’s engine wasn’t strong enough to fight that harsh of waters, so the three men would have to hold on until the storm subsided._

_The three men had to go out onto the deck to pull in their supplies. It was expensive to get supplies to replace or repair broken fishing implements, so they needed to prevent as much damage as possible. Waves were crashing up onto the deck, and the boat rocked dangerously from side to side, threatening to capsize and wash the men away._

_With all three of them working together, they were able to bring everything in quickly, but all three were losing their footing as they rushed to get safely back into the cabin._

_A huge wave rose above the deck. The teen was washed away as the other two men watched in horror. There was no way they would be able to rescue him, and with how tumultuous the water was, he wouldn’t be able to survive long enough for them to rescue him._

_Luckily for the teen, a lone mer had noticed the storm coming and gone to keep an eye on the ship. She saw the boy struggling with a rope that had tangled around him as the wave swept him away. She quickly swam over to him and untangled him, but by that point he had been under the water for too long and was starting to lose consciousness. Using a bit of her magic, she used a spell of air to provide a bubble for him to breathe in._

_Because he was too weak from fighting the rope and being without air for a short amount of time, he would have been too weak for her to bring back up to the surface for him to climb back onto the boat. Instead, she pulled him along with her on the way to a deserted island not far from the shore of his village. She took him into a cave that had a hidden cove in the back and watched over him as he slept through the storm. When the storm subsided, he still had not woken up, but it was late, and he seemed fine by then. The mermaid left, leaving a message for him in a small conch shell she found in the cove._

_When the teen woke up, he had a vague memory of being rescued from drowning. He found a shell in his hand, a small scroll of kelp stuffed into it. Shaky writing described what had happened to him, and he was surprised to see that whoever had written it said they would be going to get help from a boat from his village to send him home._

_Not long after, a boat appeared to take him back to the village. The teen tried to save the message written on kelp, but the kelp died and shriveled, rotting away to nothing. So, he carefully drilled a hole into the shell and put it on a pendant. He never took it off, keeping it as a reminder of what had almost been and of his rescuer._

_As time went by, the teen became a full-fledged mariner. Every time he went out on a trip, he kept a close eye on any movement under the water, hoping to catch a glimpse of the rescuer he barely remembered. All he remembered was it had been a mermaid, not a merman, and a flash of long blue hair._

_But he had to see her again._

_One day, on a trip he went on in his early 20s, the mariner decided to investigate the island he had been taken to. Humans hadn’t lived on it in a long time, but he didn’t know if that really meant it was entirely deserted. As he walked into the cove he had woken up in all those years ago, he saw a familiar flash of blue dart through the water. In case it was what he thought it was, he sat down, keeping as still as possible to keep from startling her._

_But she never surfaced, and he didn’t see the flash of blue again._

_So, every day for two weeks, he returned to the cove at the same time. Every time, he saw the flash of blue, but next to no movement otherwise. He just sat there for about two hours, waiting, hoping that she would surface._

_Finally, she did._

_She surfaced slowly, at first revealing only damp blue hair on the top of her head, then slowly rising more until her eyes were visible. They were deep black, and when she blinked he swore he saw a flash of iridescence in the whites of her eyes. He stayed still, despite wanting to leap for joy and excitement. She didn’t move either, watching him with both curiosity and fear in her eyes._

_Slowly, the mariner reached under his shirt to pull out the shell. It was the same shell that had been in his hand when he woke up all those years ago. He had kept it safe all that time. He saw recognition flash in her eyes, and she surfaced a little more until he could see all of her face. Carefully, he reached out and offered the pendant to her, dangling it from the chain so she didn’t have to touch him directly if she didn’t want to._

_She finally surfaced enough to be nearly eye to eye with him. Her long blue hair clung to her skin and went long past her scaled waist and hips. Slowly, she reached out to take it from him, inspecting it for a moment before draping it around her own neck. She peeled her wet hair from her body to tuck the chain under her hair, then gave him the tiniest of smiles. He smiled back at her, but just as he opened his mouth to say something, she whipped her head around, hearing something he obviously didn’t._

_Faster than he had ever seen her move, she was underwater and darting out to the open sea. He stayed in that spot for a while, but she didn’t return that day._

_She didn’t return for the next few days, either. There wasn’t even the flash of blue hair in the water that he usually saw._

_The day he decided to give up, there was a commotion on the pier. Someone was washing up on the shore. The rain hid any details from him as he tried to see. He ran towards the person, carrying blankets and towels, and was shocked to see the mermaid near unconscious on the sand. But her fish tail was gone, replaced with a pair of legs. Her hair was still blue, though shorter, but her skin had taken on a peach tone, losing the blue hue it had had before. When she opened her eyes, gasping, they were still black, but the iridescence was gone from the whites of her eyes. One thing that was exactly the same, though, was the shell pendant around her neck._

_Her eyes fixed on the mariner, and that same recognition flashed through her eyes as she shivered. He wrapped her in the towels and blankets he had brought, and she smiled. He took her to his cabin by the water, dressing her in some of his clothes, and warmed her by the fire._

_In a halting, unsure voice, she spoke of how she found a way to become human to meet him, but the process made her weak. She said she had almost drowned trying to make it to shore, because she didn’t know how to swim with legs and couldn’t breathe without her gills. The mariner stopped going on trips for three weeks, nursing her back to health instead._

_Over the course of that time, they fell in love, and they eventually married. It was once tradition to give your loved one a ring when you married, but the mermaid told the mariner she did not need one. Instead, she wore the pendant he had made of the shell she had left a message in all those years ago every day. She only removed it at night to keep from breaking it in her sleep._

_They were the happiest couple ever. She loved to go with him on his trips out on the boat to fish, using that time to catch up with her family still in the sea. They had children together, a boy first and then a girl. The whole family loved the sea, and because of that family, relations with the merfolk and the humans of the village grew. It wasn’t only the children of the species speaking together any more, but everyone of all ages._

_But fate did not have a happy ending for the family in store._

_One day, on a trip, a storm came in suddenly. The winds howled, and the sea was angered. The boat rocked, making it impossible for them to reach safety inside the cabin. A falling beam struck the mermaid on the head, killing her instantly. The children, the boy a teenager and the girl not even ten years old, were washed off the deck, never to be seen again by the mariner, the only survivor of the tragedy._

_When the storm passed, the mariner moored his boat on the shore of the deserted island and carried her body to the cove she had sheltered him in all those years ago. He gently placed her body in some shallow water, watching as her legs dissolved back into the tail she had had all those years ago. Some merfolk he recognized to have been her family appeared in the cove, watching with sad eyes as the mariner sobbed over his dead wife._

_He sat with the mermaid, crying, for three days. On the third day, her body dissolved into seafoam and slowly floated out of the cove, leaving behind only the pendant he had given her. The merfolk, her family, reassured him that this was a good sign, that she had lived a good life and her soul would be reincarnated, but it offered little comfort to him. He was glad to hear her life with him had been good, but he already missed her so much. He missed his children too, but not even the merfolk had been able to find their bodies. They had sighted a patch of seafoam that they didn’t believe to have been from any of their own, though, so they told him they believed that his children would be reincarnated just like his wife would._

_Still, the mariner could not be reassured._

_The merfolk eventually left, but the mariner remained. He put the mermaid’s pendant on, keeping his last memory of his wife near his heart._

_The mariner couldn’t bear to return to his cabin, where so many memories of his lost family were waiting. He moored one final time at the village docks, to tell them what happened, and disappeared, never to be seen again by the villagers or the merfolk._

_Several years after he disappeared, a group of villagers found themselves on the island and recognized the cove as the place where the mariner had said he had first met the mermaid. By this time, the mariner’s cabin had fallen to ruin, and no one dared go near it._

_The villagers found the ruins of a boat that looked like the one the mariner had owned. There was a hole in the hull, and it was weather-beaten. Its underside, where water lapped at it, was crusted with barnacles, and the cabin looked like a storm had been through it._

_In the cove, near where the mermaid’s body had lain until she dissolved, the villagers found a skeleton, a conch shell on a chain nestled on the skeleton’s solar plexus._

_It was the mariner._

_A pile of pendants similar to the one on the body were nearby. Though each shell was different, it was obvious what he had been trying to do._

_Shortly after the mariner’s body was discovered, an apparition that looked like a slightly older version of their memory of the mariner was spotted on the beach every time it rained, near where the mermaid had washed up. Some claimed they saw wisps around the mariner, but others didn’t see them. The villagers debated who would go to approach him the next time it rained. Finally, a boy about the mariner’s age when he was washed off the boat was brave enough to approach the apparition. And though he expected the apparition to disappear, instead it seemed to solidify as he approached._

_The mariner smiled at the boy, eyes sad._

_“Ah, I can see it in your eyes… There be a special someone in your heart. Just so happens I’m selling a ‘Mermaid’s Pendant.’ Give that to your intended and they’ll know exactly what you mean,” the mariner said._

_The boy, having known the mariner as a child, recognized both his voice and the voice of his family as he spoke. He offered what he thought was an appropriate amount to the mariner, and the trade was made. The mariner’s hands both froze and seared the boy’s as they brushed his own. He looked, wide eyed, at the mariner after the exchange._

_The mariner said nothing else, giving him only a sad smile before turning to watch the sea._

_The boy left, deciding to propose to his beloved with the pendant. His beloved was overjoyed, agreeing to marry him, and said they had heard about how the mariner had made a beautiful pendant for his mermaid bride and thought it was the most romantic thing. They loved that the boy had done the same for them._

_Soon, the use of rings to propose fell out of use in the entire region. Everyone wanted to propose with a mermaid’s pendant, the way the mariner had. They also knew that the mariner could be found on a beach in the rain, always watching the sea with sad eyes._

_Some believe he is still mourning his beloved and his children, but the people of the mariner’s village knew that wasn’t true._

_The mariner was awaiting his wife’s return, wanting nothing more than to see her and their children one last time before moving on._

* * *

 

Safiya wiped tears she didn’t realize she had been crying from her cheeks. “That’s so sad,” she said, sniffling.

Willy gave her a small, sad smile. “Yeah, it is, lass.”

Safiya opened her mouth to say something else, but she was interrupted by a raindrop on her nose. She jumped, closing her mouth and looking up. Holding out a hand, she watched as the sky opened up and rain began to fall. Realization struck, and she began to hurriedly pack her things up.

“I’m sorry, Willy, but I just remembered I have to, um,” she began, trailing off.

Willy smiled at her. “I understand. It’s okay. We can fish together at any time.”

Safiya smiled and made her way over to the tidal pools. The mariner was there, watching the sea with sad eyes. She approached him, and he turned to smile at her. Only now did she realize that his smile was so sad.

“Hello, Mr. Mariner, sir. I, um, wanted to thank you for the mermaid pendant. My husband and I are very happy together now, and I think we’re going to start a family eventually.”

The mariner gave her a smile, though it didn’t quite reach his sad, drooping eyes. “Glad to hear the amulet worked out for ye, miss.”

“I, um, also wanted to say I learned about what happened to you and your family. I wanted to say that I’m so sorry, and that they’re probably waiting for you just like you’re waiting for them,” Safiya said timidly.

The mariner gave her that same sad smile, bobbing his head a little. “Thank you, miss. I appreciate it.”

Safiya smiled at the mariner and bowed, and when she straightened, he was gone again. She reached up to clasp her ring tightly in her hand, staring at where he had been. After a few moments, she made her way back toward her house.

When she entered her house, Safiya heard Sebastian talking on the phone. She moved closer, listening to what he was saying.

“Yep, that’s her. Yeah, my wife is the one who runs Skyhold Farm… Yes, I’m sure… I only have one wife, Mr. Delacour, I’m sure she’s the one. I help her out sometimes…” he said, chuckling. “I’ll tell her you said that, she’ll love to hear it… Speaking of the farm, when she found that out, she asked me to ask you if you’d be opposed to me putting the farm’s logo on your supplier page, along with those of the other farms you buy from. A friend designed it, and she wants to finally be able to put it to use… Great, thanks, I’ll tell her.” Sebastian looked up and saw Safiya standing in the doorway. He smiled at her and waved her over. “Hey, babe, you’re back earlier than I expected.”

Safiya heard excited shouting on the other end of the phone as she approached, laughing as Sebastian squeezed his eyes shut and moved the phone away from his ear.

“Your wife is there? Please, Mr. Villaflor, I’d love to speak with her myself and tell her what I asked you to tell her!” she heard a voice on the other end say. Sebastian looked at her, placing his hand over the receiver.

“Are you okay with speaking to him? This is the guy who owns the bakery,” he said, craning his neck to kiss her as she bent toward him.

“Sure, what’s his name? Put him on speaker.”

“Mr. Delacour. He was thrilled to find such a coincidence,” Sebastian replied. He pressed a button and looked at the phone. “Alright, Mr. Delacour, I’ve got you on speaker. I’ve got my wife Safiya here with me.”

“Hello! Nice to meet you,” Safiya said.

“Ah, it’s so nice to speak with you, Mrs. Villaflor!” Mr. Delacour said, nearly shouting into the phone.

“Please, call me Safiya. And you can call my husband Sebastian if you want.”

“Oh, thank you! You can call me Jean, then!”

“Jean, who are you talking to?” a female voice in the background asked.

“Oh, Marie, you’ll never believe it! You remember how we hired that programmer we found online to fix our nightmare of a website, right? Well, it just so happens that Mr. Villaflor is married to the woman who runs Skyhold Farm! The one we buy from the most!” Jean’s muffled voice said. “He’s letting me talk with her on speaker!”

“Put it on speaker! I want to talk with her too!”

Safiya stifled a giggle as they heard fumbling over the phone. Sebastian shrugged at her, a smile on his face.

“Mrs. Villaflor, we absolutely love buying your farm’s products! The fresh ingredients have made our pastries so much better!” the woman’s voice said.

“This is my wife, Marie,” Jean added.

Safiya giggled. “I’m so glad you like it! You’ll be happy to hear, then, that I just expanded my barn and coop and bought a few baby chickens, cows, and goats. Once they all mature, I’ll be able to ship out even more milk and eggs. And I finally got my greenhouse up and running, so I’ll be growing certain fruit all year round.”

“That is wonderful news!” Marie cried.

“Sebastian was telling me that you would like to include logos on our supplier page. We would be glad to allow you to do that!” Jean said.

“That’s great, thank you!” Safiya replied.

“I’ll call you guys again when I’m done with your site, okay?” Sebastian said.

“Of course! If either are you find yourselves in Zuzu, please come give us a visit! We would love to meet you in person. Oh, and we just opened another branch in Agrette. Our daughter and her wife are running that branch. I’m sure they would love to meet you, too, if you find yourselves there!” Jean said.

“Oh, I used to live in Agrette. We’ll be sure to visit if we end up in either city. It was very nice to speak with you both,” Safiya replied.

“Of course! Well, Marie and I need to get to prepping tomorrow’s dough, unless you need any more information, Sebastian?”

“No, I have everything I need. Thank you very much,” Sebastian replied.

“Of course! Have a good rest of your day, you two,” Jean and Marie replied as they hung up.

Sebastian and Safiya looked at each other, then burst into laughter. “What an energetic couple!” Safiya said when she finally calmed down.

“Yeah, they’re very enthusiastic. I guess we have to visit if we end up in Zuzu or Agrette,” Sebastian replied.

“Uh, speaking of Agrette, I think I’m ready to tell you what had me so upset,” Safiya said slowly. Sebastian saved his work and moved with Safiya to their bed, holding her hand tightly. Safiya took a deep breath and began to tell Sebastian about what happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliffhanger, guys! I didn't want to let this chapter get too long, but I also wanted to include the story behind the mermaid pendant. I had a lot of fun writing the paragraph about Safiya's first meeting with the mariner, and I really like his character, so I wanted to invent a backstory for him.
> 
> I've got some good news! This semester, I have a single class and one two hour work shift on Wednesdays, and I'm done for the day by noon my time! Unless, like today, I get behind because of class obligations, I should be able to post pretty early in the day and also keep an eye on things to respond to you guys faster than I normally do. I can't promise anything, though, because I'm taking a pretty heavy class load this semester.
> 
> As always, thank you guys so much! I really appreciate all of your support! :D If you have any suggestions/ideas/comments, I'd love to hear them!


	16. Safiya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, embracing the past is the best way to move past it.

Safiya settled onto the couch, tucking her feet under her so she could face Sebastian as he settled cross-legged beside her. She reached over, weaving her fingers with his and gently caressing the side of his hands with her thumbs. She stared at their joined hands, smiling at the wedding band on his finger. Looking up through her bangs, she could see how concerned he was for her.

She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, tossing her head so her bangs were out of her eyes. “So, you know how I’ve hinted at how my life in the city was pretty bad?” she began.

Sebastian nodded. “Does this have to do with that?”

Safiya nodded. “I was living in Agrette. My parents lived in a suburb between Agrette and Zuzu. I should have gone to Zuzu, but I got a better scholarship offer from the college in Agrette, so I went there. College itself wasn’t that bad, but things started getting worse and worse when I started college after I graduated. I started to hate going to work. I dreaded getting up in the morning, even going to bed at night because I knew that when I woke up I had to get up and go back in.”

“Where did you work?”

“Joja HQ.”

Sebastian’s face hardened, turning stormy. Safiya had heard horror stories about how even just the local Joja Mart treated their employees, and she had seen what the manager was willing to do to try to put Pierre out of business firsthand. And Sebastian’s best friends were among those most deeply affected. She wasn’t surprised he was upset about that.

“I wanted to work in business. They were the first company to offer me a job when I was graduating, and I just took it. I worked on campus through college, and they can’t allow non-students to work student jobs. I was kinda desperate.”

“Well, that’s understandable, then.”

“Well, anyway. I got put in the research and development team. I did pretty well, too. I became head researcher within a year of working there. I had made what I thought were friends in my department, but things started to change when I got that position.”

“Don’t tell me…”

“One of the guys I was ‘friends’ with was jealous that I got the position he wanted when I was a newer employee than he was. I thought I liked him as more than friends, but then this other girl I guess was jealous of how we were friends before I got the position and just started crawling all over him in front of me. And this other girl was just a snob. She always was, but it got worse when the two of them decided they didn’t like me any more. And not long after that, I started getting followed. I reported it all over the place. I thought it was the last guy out of the group, but they all denied it and defended him, and Joja believed them instead of me. I had to move and take a different route to work and back home every day. There was another girl I worked with on occasion, her name was May. She seemed like she wanted to help, but I was just afraid to try to reach out to anyone else who worked there at that point.”

“Safiya… I’m so sorry. That’s horrible,” Sebastian said, his voice pained and dripping with sadness. He tightened his grip on her hands but didn’t move otherwise. She appreciated that he was letting her decide how she wanted to do this; it was already hard enough to talk about it.

“It’s in the past. Or at least, I thought it was. I got a letter from the girl who was a snob. She was horrible in the letter. I don’t know why she thought she had to send it. It was in an invitation to a party my old department holds every year for current and past employees.”

Sebastian’s eyes narrowed, and she saw muscles twitch in his face as he gritted his teeth. “Do you still have the letter?” he asked.

Safiya nodded, retrieving it and the invitation from where she had kicked them during her fit the previous day. Wordlessly, she handed them to him. His face was already twisted into anger as he took the pages, and he rested his hand on her thigh as he read. As he read, his eyebrows furrowed and his hand on her thigh tightened.

Finally, he lowered the letter and looked up at her.

“You don’t even have to say anything. I can tell how pissed you are,” Safiya said.

“Damn right I’m pissed. How dare she talk to you like that!”

“She talks like that to basically everyone. I don’t know how anyone can stand it.”

Sebastian shook his head, letting out a long sigh. “Let me see the invitation.”

Safiya handed him the invitation. To be honest, she hadn’t really bothered to read the invitation at all. She had been preoccupied by the letter and how much it upset her. She had no idea when or where the party was going to be, or who was handling RSVPs.

“Babe, who was the person you said seemed concerned about you?” Sebastian asked after a few moments of silence.

“May.”

“Sutherland?”

“Yeah, how’d you know?” Safiya asked.

“She’s listed as the RSVP contact.”

“Oh, really?” Safiya asked, turning the invitation toward her to look. “Huh. I hadn’t really looked at the invitation. I was a little distracted by the letter.”

“And, listen, I just got word of it today. There’s a programmers’ convention going on not far from where it says your party will be that same weekend.”

“What are you suggesting?” Safiya asked, hesitant.

“I’m saying, maybe we should go. It says you can bring a plus one. I’ll go with you, and we can stick it to those assholes that were rude to you so long ago. They’ll get to see how happy we are, how happy _you_ are without them anywhere near your life. And if this May is more involved in the planning of the place, maybe you could ask her to pull some strings and get the event to be catered by that bakery. That way, they have to know how successful you are because your products went into them being able to make all the food for that place. We don’t even have to stay more than like an hour max.”

Safiya thought for a bit. It did sound nice, and she would love to be able to get them off her case. But she was afraid of several things that could possibly go wrong.

“I don’t know if I can face them,” she whispered.

Sebastian reached over and cupped her cheek, his thumb tracing along her cheekbone as he smiled at her. “You don’t have to do it alone. I’ll be right beside you.”

“What if May doesn’t remember me or want to talk to me? Darcy said-!”

“Fuck Darcy. To me, it sounds like May was genuinely concerned for you and would love to hear from you.”

“Well, what if she can’t pull those strings?”

“Doesn’t matter. They’ll still see how happy you are now after being away from that shithole.”

Safiya was silent for a while. Sebastian was starting to convince her, but she was still a little scared. He must have been able to see how conflicted she was, because he got up and left the room, returning a few minutes later with her phone in hand and Adonis in tow. Whistling lowly, he gestured for Adonis to jump up onto the bed and climb into Safiya’s lap.

Safiya barely had time to move so she was sitting properly before he climbed into her lap to be held as if he were a baby. Sebastian sat beside her, handing her her phone. “Call her. I’m sure it’ll go well.”

Taking a deep breath, Safiya woke up her phone’s screen and stared at the numbers. Finally, she dialed, rubbing her dog’s back so she could stay calm. She smiled when Sebastian put an arm around her shoulders for added comfort. It rung three times, and Safiya jumped when a click signified someone had picked up on the other end.

“Joja Corporation research and development team,” a chipper voice said on the other end.

“Hi, is this May Sutherland?” she asked after a beat.

“Yes it is, may I ask who I’m speaking to?”

“Hi May, this is Safiya.”

“Oh my gosh, how are you! I’m so glad to hear from you! Did you get the invitation?”

Safiya smiled. May still sounded exactly the same as she had over a year ago. “I’m good, thank you. I hope you’re doing well. I did get the invitation, that’s why I’m calling.”

“Of course! I hope you’re planning on coming?”

“Yes, I am, along with a plus one.”

“Oh, wonderful! Alright, let me just get your name down, and then your plus one. Safiya… al Amuli…” May said, mumbling the last part.

“Oh, May, before you write that, I have a request for you and something else.”

“What is it?”

“First, you can call me Saf, but don’t call me that if you’re around anyone else there if we’re on the phone, okay?”

“Of course, I can do that. And the other thing?”

“So, I need to tell you what to put down. My name is Safiya Villaflor now. My plus one is going to be my husband, Sebastian Villaflor.”

“Oh, goodness! Of course, of course! I’m so happy to hear that! Congratulations!”

“Thank you! Are you in charge of the planning this year?”

“Yes I am, why do you ask?”

“Can you step away from everyone else?”

“Sure, this is my work cell. Let me go step outside.” A brief pause. “Alright, what is it, Saf?”

“So, I have a request for you. There’s this bakery I know of. I’d like to request that they cater at least dessert for the party if you haven’t already set up catering.”

“No, not yet. Which bakery is it?”

“Little Shepherd Bakery and Café.”

May mumbled as she wrote down the name. “Alright, I can see about that. May I ask why you want them to cater the desserts?”

“They use produce and dairy from my farm to make their desserts.”

“Oh! I’m sure it’s amazing then!”

“If you tell them I requested it, they might say yes. They have a location in Zuzu and near the office.”

“Wonderful! Thank you so much for the recommendation, I was looking for a place to get desserts from.”

“I have one last request. Sorry I’m being so demanding.”

“No, not at all! I’m just glad to hear you’re doing so well there. I know things weren’t exactly the greatest here for you. I tried to offer support, but you didn’t seem like you wanted any from anyone here…”

“No, but I really do appreciate it. And listen, if you want, feel free to save this number. This is my cell, so you can call or text me if you want to catch up. Texting would be easier for me, though.”

“That would be great! I’ve been wondering how you’ve been!”

“Really? Darcy made it seem like everyone either hated me or forgot about me.”

“Ugh, I thought I saw her pawing through the invitations. She’s been so rude about you since you left. She must have snuck a rude letter in before I got to sealing all the invitations.”

“My last request has something to do with her and the others, actually.”

“Shoot.”

“If she or any of the others ask if I’m coming, just say that you’re not sure. If they see you prepping any, like, nametags for me or something and ask, just tell them that you’re prepping stuff for everyone who hasn’t RSVP’d in case they do show up.”

“Oh, I can do that! I’m so glad to hear from you and hear you’ll be coming!”

“Yeah, I’ll be looking forward to seeing you again. Bye, May.”

“Bye!”

Safiya hung up her phone, patting Adonis in her lap as she rested her head on Sebastian’s shoulder. She stayed silent for a minute, then sighed and sat up.

“I guess that went well.”

“I’d say that went better than well.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Well, I guess I should start getting set up for the convention, then. And I’ll take care of the reservations at the hotel.”

“We could stay with my parents?” Safiya suggested.

“We can keep that as a backup, but I kinda want to turn the non-work-related parts into a honeymoon, if you’re alright with that. Since we don’t know if or when you’ll be able to leave for an extended period of time again. What do you think?” Sebastian asked, looking hopeful.

“You do?”

“Yeah. I mean, of course I’m okay with it if you don’t and want to visit your parents instead, but… You know how people around here tend to walk into everywhere as if they own the place. I’ve been a bit worried someone might try that when we’re, uh. You know.”

Safiya had to bite her tongue to keep from smiling, deciding she’d play innocent to tease him. She pushed Adonis off her lap. “When we’re what, babe?”

Sebastian began to flush. “You know. Getting busy.”

“Busy doing what?”

Realization crossed Sebastian’s face, and he narrowed his eyes as he gave her a sly grin. “I know I don’t need to spell it out for you. You remember the night of our wedding.”

Safiya giggled. “I do. I take it you’re not much of a voyeur kind of guy then, Sebastian?” she asked, her voice low.

“No one gets to see my beautiful wife like that but me,” Sebastian replied, leaning forward. He kissed her, a bit roughly even, and pulled her close.

He picked her up, wrapping her legs against his waist, and carried her, first to the front door to lock it and then to their bedroom. He shut the bedroom door too, closing Adonis out. Finally, he made his way toward the bed, gently placing her on it and leaning over her to keep kissing her. Safiya giggled. They smiled at each other, foreheads pressed together. Sebastian straightened and shed his shirt before leaning back over her, hands ghosting over her body.

“Is this a good way to distract you?” he whispered huskily.

“Get back here,” Safiya whispered, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him back down to her. It was the perfect way to distract her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry this is coming out so late at night. Honestly part of it is because we had Monday off, so my whole week's been thrown off. I didn't realize it was a posting day until like 5:30 PM my time. Also it's been pretty rough starting this semester out for many of us here, and I've been trying to help out my roommates deal with some stuff as well as help out at work while still managing my own stuff.
> 
> Also, sorry it's so short! And dialogue heavy. I didn't have much else to say otherwise; what I have planned next I wanted to be its own chapter. Oh, and this is about as far as I can get into writing smut. I feel weird trying, so I have to leave it implied. If anyone happened to be wanting that, well, sorry...;;; Maybe someday I'll feel comfortable enough to rewrite this chapter with the smut, but for now I just have to leave it as it is.
> 
> As always, thank you guys so much for understanding and for all your support! :D I would love to hear any comments of any kind you might have! You guys are the best!


	17. Safiya

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Planning for the future can come in several forms.

Safiya leaned forward, pressing her elbows into her knees. Her jaw clenched as she struggled not to let out any noise. She flicked her head so her loose hair wouldn’t be in her face or tickling her neck. She gripped her controller so tightly that her knuckles went white.

She squawked when what she thought was a simple cup transformed into a monster that launched itself at her character’s face, wildly swinging with her wrench before she calmed down enough to switch to the immobilization cannon. After immobilizing the monster, she whacked it to bits with the wrench. A sigh of relief escaped her, and she went back to searching for items she could recycle for enough materials to craft more bullets for her pistol.

As she moved around a corner, she came face to face with one of the larger monsters. She squealed, frantically backpedaling to keep from losing too much health or suit integrity, and broke out the shotgun she preferred to save for bad situations.

With the level her health was at, it was the best time for a shotgun.

It only took a few blasts from the shotgun to kill that monster, but it still took long enough that she was in need of healing. Thankfully, there were some food items nearby, so she began to pick those up in hopes she could save more of her medkits for a more dire situation. She grumbled to herself as she picked everything up, whacking the pieces of the monster with her wrench whenever she passed one by.

Safiya heard a noise, but she couldn’t tell if it was coming from the TV or from somewhere in her house. Slowly, she looked behind her, but there was nothing anywhere over there. She looked toward the kitchen and saw only Adonis, still asleep under the kitchen table as he had been all evening. Another noise came from somewhere to her right. She turned to look, but again, nothing was there.

The game was playing tricks on her mind. It wasn’t even that scary of a game, but even the simulated fear of not knowing what could end up hurting her character was starting to get to her. It wasn’t even possible for monsters to mimic the mundane. Some had adapted to look similar to ordinary things, like the cave crabs with their rock-like shells, but only the magic-possessing could mimic anything.

Safiya turned back to the game, eating all the food she had picked up, but there was the sound again. It was definitely real; the only sound in the menu of this game was if she purposely selected options that made sound. And it didn’t sound like the noises the menu made if she consumed anything or reorganized her things.

Her shoulders tensed, and she slowly turned to the left, sweeping the kitchen and then the living room behind her again.

A hand fell on her right shoulder.

Safiya bit back a scream, but she still jumped a good inch off the couch. She turned, only to see Sebastian standing beside her, a shit-eating grin on his face.

“Sebastian Villaflor! You scared me, you big meanie! Why’d you have to do that?” she pouted. Sebastian laughed.

“I came in and you were already freaking yourself out. Sorry you didn’t hear me, but it was kinda funny.”

“No it wasn’t!”

“I really am sorry I scared you. But I do have to say you’re really cute when you get so into your game.

Safiya shrugged, pout melting away. “I always get like this when I’m playing something. I guess you still haven’t seen it much since I haven’t had much time to play much since I moved here.”

“Well, I’m glad I was able to help you finish early so you could try out your new game. I hadn’t realized how much the rain really helps to speed things up.”

“Yeah, it makes it way easier when I don’t have to water the rows of crops. It’s not easy to set up sprinklers for rows like it is for my patches.”

“Yeah. Well, anyway, are you at a good stopping point? I’ve got some news about our trip, but I don’t want to interrupt you if you’re in the middle of something.”

“No, I’m in a good place. Let me just save and quit real quick.”

Safiya saved and, after double checking to be sure it saved properly, she quit the game and turned her console off. She scooted over to make room for Sebastian, patting the space beside her. He sat down, crossing his ankle over his knee, and set up his laptop on his lap. As Safiya moved closer to lean on his shoulder and see the screen, he pulled up an email.

“So, I reserved a room for us at the hotel my convention is in. They were offering discounts if you had proof you were attending the convention, and it’s a pretty nice place. We’re in room 624, and apparently that room has a good view.”

“That’s cool.”

“Yeah. Honestly I’m fine with anything as long as we’re not staring at the dirty backside of another building. Anyway, the part of the convention that’ll be most helpful for me will only be that Friday afternoon. The rest of the convention won’t be too useful for me, so I can skip it. And your thing is Saturday night. I have the room from Friday to Monday, so we can do whatever we want otherwise.”

“Okay, sounds good. What sort of things were you thinking?”

“Well, I thought it’d be nice to visit the Agrette location of that bakery. I know you like to swim, and the pool at our hotel is a really nice one so we could always go down there for a bit. And we could always go visit your parents. I don’t know too much about that city compared to what I know about Zuzu, but we can find something to do.”

“Okay. I’m up for anything.”

“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind in case I find something. As for the farm, I asked my family and some of our friends. Maru said she’d keep an eye on your beehives and the crops in front of the house. Demetrius said he’d take care of your mushroom boxes and the greenhouse, and Mom said she’d take care of your animals. Sam wanted to help with that, but I think he just wants to play with Adonis. Oh, and Abbie said she’d go into your slime hutch. I already told her she’s not allowed to hurt them and that you’re leaving her your slime charm, though, so don’t worry.”

“Okay. I don’t think Maru and Demetrius will really need instructions, but I’ll write out basic instructions for everyone. And I can have them shadow me for the days leading up to our trip. It’s pretty simple, so they should get it quickly. I mean, look at me, here I am and I was an office worker until the day I got here.”

“Yeah, when I first saw you I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to do it. But now you’re so buff you could break me in half.”

Safiya laughed. “That reminds me. A little bird told me you’d say thank you if I did break you in half!”

Sebastian rolled his eyes, but he was smiling. “I’m gonna kill Sam someday, I know it,” he joked.

“You know you love him.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just keep it down so he doesn’t hear you say that.”

Safiya laughed. She straightened, stretching, and then slumped back against the couch. Everything was falling into place for their plan. But of course, Safiya’s mind couldn’t help but conjure up every possible way things could go wrong, including some impossible ways. She sighed, rubbing her eyes. She couldn’t help it; her anxiety made it so she couldn’t keep her brain from doing it to her.

Opening her eyes, Safiya turned to see Sebastian looking at her with an unreadable face. She knew him so well, but sometimes even she was stumped by what he could possibly be thinking. “What is it?” she asked.

“I can see the smoke coming from your ears,” he said.

Safiya took in a deep breath, letting it out in a long sigh. “I just can’t help but worry that something will go wrong.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, my brain is coming up with all these issues that I’m sure won’t happen but it keeps saying ‘what if they do’ and then I keep worrying more and more.”

Sebastian turned to better face her. “I’m sure it’ll be okay. You’re still keeping in touch with May, right?”

“Yeah, she gave me her personal cell number and we’ve been texting back and forth. A little about how the things I asked her to do for me are going, but otherwise catching up.”

“She seemed really excited to hear from you when you called that first time. I’m sure she missed you.”

“I guess so. She said something about how a couple people saw a nametag for me and got excited, and that they’re people who aren’t super impressed with Darcy and company so they’re keeping the secret too. But I dunno. I’m sure it’s just because I’m better with faces than names, but I’m struggling to remember some of them. So I’m worrying she’s just trying to keep my spirits up.”

“I don’t even know her, and I don’t think she’d be the type to do that.”

“I mean… Yeah…”

Sebastian grabbed Safiya’s hand, holding it between his own. “Everything is going to be perfect. I know it doesn’t really help when someone says this, but stop worrying so much. You’ve got people supporting you to make sure the plan works.”

Safiya smiled. “Thank you, Seb.”

They fell silent, so Safiya fell back to lay across the couch, her legs over Sebastian’s lap. He leaned over to grab the remote, flicking through channels on the TV until he finally settled on some B-list horror movie. He then settled his laptop on top of her shins, getting back to work on the game he had started making. Together, they watched the movie quietly for a bit. Adonis even moved to lie under the coffee table instead of the kitchen table.

Safiya began to wonder about what her future could possibly hold. Not just the future of the party, but beyond that. The rest of the year, the next year, the year after that, hell, even the rest of her life. Already things she never thought would have been possible for her had happened, so she wondered what else could be in store for her.

“What’s on your mind?” Sebastian asked.

Safiya started. “What?”

“You were sighing a lot. What’re you thinking about?”

Safiya began to move, so Sebastian lifted his laptop, allowing her to take her legs back in order to sit up and properly face him. “I was just wondering what might happen in the future.”

“You mean the party?”

“No. I mean, yes, but more what could happen beyond that.”

“Like what?”

“Like… Like our future together. What might be in store for us. What might be in store for the future of my farm. If any other big changes might come to Pelican Town. That kinda stuff.”

“Well… Do you want anything to happen? Anything to change?”

Safiya fell silent. She wasn’t entirely sure. As a kid she always wanted to have a family, but she would feel so bad for any she might have because of how much time she had to sink into running for her farm. As it was, she felt bad enough about how she couldn’t always spend much time with Sebastian and her in laws. And it only got worse the further she expanded the farm. She knew they understood, but she still felt bad. She couldn’t imagine how bad she would feel for how little time she’d be able to spend with any other family members if they expanded their family somehow.

“And what does that look mean?”

Safiya started and looked back at Sebastian. “What do you mean?”

“You were thinking hard again. What’s on your mind?”

A pause. “Have you ever… thought about having a family?”

“Well, yeah. I have you, and we have a dog.”

“No, I mean, like… A bigger family. With me.”

A series of expressions Safiya couldn’t quite decipher crossed Sebastian’s face. “You mean…?”

Safiya took a deep breath. “Have you though about us maybe possibly having kids someday…?”

Shock and surprise in equal parts were visible on Sebastian’s face. “You want to have kids?”

“Not necessarily right this minute, of course. But maybe someday?”

“I mean…”

“You don’t have to answer. And if you don’t want to we don’t have to.”

“Well… Honestly, I’ve never really thought of myself as a family kind of guy, but… I think I could see it. Yeah, I think I’d like that. Someday. Only with you, though, never if I ended up with someone else. Why do you ask?”

Safiya smiled. “I dunno. I guess it just came up as part of my thinking about the future.”

“When are you thinking?”

Safiya shrugged. “I guess… Whenever you’re comfortable. I’ll probably need more help around the farm the later it gets, and once this theoretical baby comes into the picture.”

“Well, yeah. But I’d be more than happy to help in any way you need, and I’m sure Maru and my parents would too.”

“So… Do you have any possible idea?”

“Idea of what?”

“When you think you’d be comfortable to, you know, start trying?”

Sebastian fell silent for a moment, thinking. “I think we could be ready soon.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Your farm brings in a lot, and my coding jobs only add to that. I know Mom built that kids’ room upstairs when she expanded the house for you. And of course I’m sure like half the town _at least_ would be thrilled and do anything they could to help. That’s not even considering what your parents and grandpa might do to help out, too.”

“Yeah, that’s true… I hadn’t even thought about that. But, uh, when is soon exactly?”

Once again, Sebastian fell silent for a while. “I guess… Any time, really. We’ve got what we need to do this. If you think you’re ready, then I will be too. I just… Are you sure? I know it’s going to be really hard on your body…”

“Well, yeah, but I doubt it could be that much worse than what I go through every month. Because that’s really bad. I’m sure you saw those prescription painkillers I have.”

“Yeah. Well… I guess if you’re ready for this…”

“If you want, we could just… Not try to exactly, but like, just stop trying not to? Kinda just, if it happens, it happens. That kind of thing?” Safiya said slowly.

Sebastian nodded slowly. “I think that could work.”

Safiya smiled at Sebastian. “I’m sorry, that was probably super awkward and uncomfortable. But thank you.”

Sebastian smiled back. “Well, the topic was bound to come up at some point. And I think we’ll be great. And hey, if something happens before your old company’s party, then more we can rub in their faces. Who knows. There’s still about a month until then.”

Safiya chuckled. “Yeah, I guess that’s true. It’s still only April. We have until the middle of June to see what might happen.”

Sebastian smiled and leaned over to kiss her forehead. “Yeah. You calmed down enough now?”

“I think so.”

“Good. Then how about a slow night in for the rest of the night?” Sebastian suggested.

“That sounds amazing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pretty dialogue heavy again. And still kinda short compared to my usual chapters. But, I think this one turned out alright still. One more chapter and we'll start getting to the peak of this arc!
> 
> I don't really have much else to say for once. Oh, except that the game Safiya's playing is based on Prey. I've been playing that lately, and it's a lot of fun! Not super scary, but I'm loving the story and all the background details.
> 
> As always, thank you guys so much for all of your support! If you have any recommendations or comments of any kind, I'd love to hear them! Thank you guys! :D


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